Finally had a day off work, so today was outdoors day- and I was doing a quick cheap job of chickenproofing the veggie patch so that I can actually grow something again, but....
Not so chickenproof.
Work also had to come to a halt when pipsqueak and ash both decided to climb onto me, for a nap.
I’d also realise that I hadn’t mentioned my new Wyanadotte! Ash is a very dark blue lace red girl, about 12 weeks old now. She originally came with a sibling but she turned out to be a he and had to go home, which is a shame because he was a gorgeous boy.
Their slop is a once a week treat comprised of scrambled eggs + shells, corn, shredded apple, oats, tuna, Greek yoghurt and sometimes meat dust. There’s a bunch of things in there good for putting on different stuff, like weight or feather shine or aiding with molts, but they just get their slop because we like to spoil them.
Its been a week of garden task more akin to commando raids: slay the hedges; slash the shrubs; bucket brigade the soil amendments; plant seed to explode in the coming days. Its a frenzy with an hour here and few minutes there to make an impact. Every year Mother Nature slumbers and I tippy-toe around thinking I have plenty of time ... but she doesn’t wake gently but rather like a hungry lioness POUNCING. Yeah, SPRING!
Planted: snap peas, purple peas, french marigolds, tiger paste toms, dill, basil, Peshwar poppies, an heirloom variety mix of cosmos (seashell, psyche, Versaille). All tucked in a tray perched on the worm bin (just asking for trouble at this point in the lean-to).
Need to get my seed box organized differently. Still not happy with it.
I came up short on small pots, forgetting last year I did pop-up pots and seeded Kat’s stuff in the plastic so I had to order some because they weren’t available locally. What I did seed I put in the plastic clam shells I save (recycle containers for seed pots) but e just don’t use a lot of things in plastic. I also have some floating ag cloth coming in (again not available locally) because of the feather thug live that's not moving along. Looking back on my notes in my garden journal, 2020 was the first run in with these types of sparrow. This will also help with the cabbage moths (Pieris rapae) I can also use it to extend my in ground season, getting in a few more colder quick crops. I ordered a stronger mil hoping to get more than a couple of seasons out of it.
This morning, too early for the neighbors, the hens started screaming about ‘scary creatures’ in the holding. Its pouring rain but i gingerly creep out, trying to spy the culprit. Nothing. But the girls are insistent so I throw a couple of rocks in random directions (not flushing anything) but they are satisfied and go back to being grumbly hens that are not thrilled with the rain and the lack of hot porridge. No sooner back to my desk with a comforting cup of coffee (I know its not Sabbath, hush and let me sin in peace for the day is long and I am short tempered -- its medication at this point) off they go, this time, even louder if there be such a thing! Grabbing coffee and go. Stand in the doorway. Cooing at my dear little featherbrains. They eventually start to settle except Alcott. I’m not doing my part (to her satisfaction) so she stays on high alert, craning her neck out, eyeing every twig and leaf that could hide The Enemy. Me: ‘hush-hush. hush-hush. Stop looking for trouble! Turn yer face away! Look in the other direction,Alcott-te-be.’ and I swear, right on cue, she shuranges her head about without change of expression, still on high alert and starts to puff up like she’s going to pop off so I start singing to her the hush-hush song as I sway in the doorway with my mug clasped to my chest. Crooning for Chickens. I’m sure the neighbors, if they didn’t think it before, are now confirmed in their suspicions that I have gone mad. News flash: always been this way >:)
After the resounding success of my Chicken Breed Pack #1, I immediately got to work on Chicken Breed #2. It's hard work putting these packs out, but I feel like it's the least I can do with the amount of the support the community has shown me. For that reason, I am so excited to bring you Chicken Breed Pack #2!
This pack contains four new chicken breeds with both the Rooster and Hen variant. If you want a fifth chicken breed today, pick up my premium chicken breed, the Braekel (Available to my Workshop Member tier Patrons only). This will begin a series of premium chicken breeds that will have custom meshes, egg color variants, and custom interactions.
The breeds available are the Cemani, Bionda Piemontese, Laced Wynadotte, and Sussex. As always if you have more breeds you want to see, comment and let me know.
I also have a super excited announcement. Today is the launch of my Discord. My Discord will be the hub for my releases, as well as being the most direct way to contact me (unless you're a Patron). This is the best place to discuss all of my CC/mods, but it can also be used for creators to promote their own releases and get help.
Join my community on discord: https://discord.gg/zFWqcztwkb
This mod has 2 dependencies. One (which should be obvious) is Cottage Living. The other allows for multiple custom animal mods to exist without overwriting each other. You can download it here:
More chickadees. For those that don’t know Australia is going through a mad heatwave at the moment. Chickens don’t like heat *at all* so I’ve been throwing all the cooling techniques their way. One of the best is frozen watermelon, for which they go absolutely mental.
And my only choc Orpington baby whooooooo
Is a boy.
One choc Orpington from many, and it’s a cockerel.