New farm arrival - Beak

A big first this morning:

First birth on the farm.

We've been incubating eggs and yesterday morning was day 21.

And at lunchtime something made a hole

Then it made a bigger hole

I started helping at this point, because it looked like someone was upside down (clearly following in the footsteps of the best, i think, but I might be biased on that one.)

Now you can see (a rather gloopy) leg on top, a beak just poking over the edge of the shell below it and an eye just peeping over the shell rim to the left.

I finally got my leg free!

I'm out! But not fully under control yet.

Nope, it's cold out there, back to the warm corner

Yep, best place to doze and dry out

Looking more chick-y

It's a bimodal device - either cheepy or sleepy, it has no other functions yet.

Just checking all is ok before going out for the evening.

Pustie neighbours

The village has lots of feral cats.

They are helpful for keeping down the hoards of mice.

Our elderly neighbour used to feed some of them.

But she recently went to a nursing home.

And of course Wuwu wouldn't let us just leave them to go hungry.

So we've been making friends.

I'm more than happy to contribute food to the existing pusties, but not so keen on feeding an ever expanding population.

So an outing to the vets is on the cards.

And how to catch them became the question.

So we've been teaching them to go in a box.

This is Mork and Mindy

At first we thought they were brother and sister.

Until we discovered Mindy is a boy.

And we think they are a generation apart, Mork being about 18 months old, and Mindy, 6 months.

There's a third cat we've called Bella, who went to the vets last week and is definitely female. She's also about 2 years old.

She's got sunburn on her ears.

Feral cats here are very small and only live 2 or 3 years.

We're hoping that neutering them will give them a better chance.

I'm also hoping that their enthusiasm for food will allow me to slip in a few wormers. 

I think Mindy might have been hand reared.

A mother cat was killed on the road when her kittens were about 5 weeks.

And shortly after, our elderly neighbour was being followed around by two young cats.

And Mindy is way too friendly for a feral cat.

I'd like to find him a home. He likes people too much to live on an abandoned farm.

Treasure

This photo was taken several years ago.

See the white blob next to the base of the chimney?

It was there since the day we moved in.

What was it?

Well, to be honest, we weren't sure.

But there was a suggestion it might be a washing machine.

What it was doing there, we didn't know.

Why did we care?

Because washing machines have motors that are powerful for their size, and an engineer can never have too many motors.

The problem was, it was balanced precariously on top of a collapsing wall.

Not knowing how to get it down safely, and knowing that it had already been exposed to the elements for at least one winter,  there it stayed.

For another three years.

Until, this winter during a storm, the chimneys finally came down.

And the washer came down with them.

Unfortunately,  in the storm it filled with rain and promptly froze into a huge solid block of ice.

Now we knew it was a washer, but still couldnt get at the motor.

Hope for the motor surviving deminished.

Finally, 2 months later, this weekend it was extracted. Did it go bang? Did it squeal?

Nope. It purred and span. 

The moral of the story - never lose hope on an old washing machine motor.

Here it is. With the pump, which also looks in working order. Doesn't look much but,  if it can work this well after 4 years out in storms, I think it's a good'un.

Ice Castles

Snow and ice carving competition

Is it a bird? Is it a pig? Is it a dustbin?

No, it's a Pippa dog!

Normally chickens get left-overs. But on our farm they don't. Because there are none. Because someone else eats it all. Here is Pippa dog demonstrating that she can eat anything a chicken can eat.

Sunflower seeds, husks and all

Notice how confused brown dog is at the idea that she is meant to eat this, while Pippa doesn't even stop to consider.

https://youtu.be/ku3LAQradDw

Corn

https://youtu.be/JXFRyS69s78

Wheat

https://youtu.be/TLWkTz3aoPk

Don't think I recommend this. I don't. Pippa will have her normal dinner tonight. Despite this, in the morning she will be starving. I don't understand this - why eating more leaves her hungrier, but dogs didn't evolve to digest cereals and I guess that's maybe got something to do with it.

The problems with mieces

I never thought mice would be such a problem on a farm with so few animals. 

The fields are just riddled with them.

Normally I'd leave my winter veg in the ground and harvest as needed.

But they disappear.

You come to pick it and find it is just a hollow shell with a mouse/vole/rat tunnel below.

And every autumn the mice move in.

The cats occasionally bring mice in the house. But we have traps for them and they are relatively easy to remove and once gone, they are gone.

The autumn invasion is different.

Every autumn we spend several weekends reinforcing mouse defenses.

This year in the cellar we had to cement the walls and build a mouse proof potato bin when they dug thru the walls.

In the barn we had to reinforce the walls everywhere they had chewed a way thru to get at the chicken feed.

And now they are in the house roof, between the walls. How did they get there? And how to get them out?

We think this is the most likely culprit:

These poles were put up to grow grapes on,

https://worldofwuwu.blogspot.com/2017/10/grape-vine-transplant.htm

but became repurposed for down gutter supports.

But maybe they have been repurposed once more as mouse ladders? 

Time to repurposed some old rusty metal sheets as mouse baffles

First, mark a large semi circle

Then a smaller one at the centre - the circumference of this semi circle needs to match the circumference of the pole.

Cut out

Bend

Drill hole (it helps if you punch a small guide hole first

Insert nutsert

Fit to pole

One way only sign for mice

 Fingers crossed for no more chewing, scampering and squeaking noises in the night. Otherwise we'll be back for round 2.

It's cold outside.....

......and the eggs are frozen