Another cold start to the day -4C. Last night it was -1C at 9pm and it was only forecast to drop to -2C. I said to my husband that there was no way it was only going to drop 1C in the space of 8 hours with clear skies and wonderful stars. They still fascinate me. I love the fact that I can see the milky way without my eyes even needing to adjust to the darkness. Once my eyes have started to adjust, you can even see the dark areas in the Milky Way.
Yesterday was spent in the garden (again). Saturday had been spent updating my blog. Something I have to continue with this afternoon whilst cooking a Shaker Lemon Pie. It was all hands to the chook house and enclosure again. Now that I can't keep my chooks safe free ranging, we need to make their enclosure more secure for when they are in it (when one of us is not around) and also they are using the chook house a lot more now (probably because of the cold) but since we fitted the automated door, we are not opening the double doors as much, so we have been scrounging clear corrugated plastic - usually from the tip. 2 sheets of plastic make for 1 new window in the chook house. We are replacing the old stuff rather than making new windows, so all you have to do is remove the old stuff which is no longer see through and brittle as anything and put in the new stuff.... sounds easy. only when I tried to do it, having moved the ladders from the barn to the chook house - ladders I can't actually carry only drag because they are too heavy for me, then climbed up on to the roof (once it was dry and not icy!) and low and behold I can't do it because the top row of nails which anchors everything is beyond my height even with my arms extended and using a hammer.... yep, that idea failed, so the job had to be moved to my husband's list...
So whilst he got on with that, I got on with moving the fencing he had put up for me on the inside of the chook enclosure. The problem being that foxes can climb and use horizontal pieces of wood as aids to jumping over a fence. His argument was that the fox wouldn't be able to get out. The problem is that foxes kill out of their very nature, they don't just take 1 or 2 chooks, they kill as many as they can/all of them, then they take the bodies away... so trapping on in the chook enclosure is not a good move. So the fencing needs to be moved from the inside to the outside because the enclosure for some reason was built the other way around (presumably because it was designed for strength against cattle when the horse ranch was converted to a cattle ranch). My husband had opted for the easier option of fencing the inside along the smooth surface rather than the harder side.
Today will be spent catching up here, cooking, giving a couple of rather mucky chicks their very first bath! (what fun) and updating my blog... again. Plus I have some online shopping ot get done.
"Cleveland Rocks" has been a staple back home for decades and even to today.
husband is going out for a bike ride and I am going out for my first run in a very long time. It won't be far but it will hurt 
