Photograph

Other pictures of the great fence and our veggie pots...

By the way, just in case you were wondering, Sophie (the neurotic cat) is loving this arrangement and is currently re-discovering HER garden. The gorgeous one and I sat out for a "sun-downer" last night and Sophie ventured nearly all the way to the new fence, that was until a leaf moved beside her and made her run back into the safety of the house again.

A Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day yesterday, just right for working hard in the garden and with child labour on offer, who could refuse?!?

The plan was to give the girls their own piece of garden and to get some veggies planted up before it was too late for sowing them. So that's what we did.

The girl child and I planted our veggies in the boxes that the girls had been very happily digging around in until I fenced them off with chicken wire and there was beginning to be more soil out of the pots than in them. We planted beetroot, carrots, parsnips and spring onions and then told the girls that they wouldn't be allowed out to eat them or to jump around in the pots anymore - is that cruel?

The gorgeous one and the boy child worked hard on putting together a fence to keep the girls at the back of the garden, using careful planning, some wood, some chicken wire and a new wood cutter (and very excited the gorgeous one was about that too). They measured it out and made rectangular panels and fixed them to the fence and the tree and they even made a gate! I'm so proud!

Once complete, the girls were let out again to investigate and immediately started looking for weak spots in the perimeter, Mabel went back to see if she could get under the wire again but no, that was totally secure, they went behind the tree to see if perhaps there was a gap in the fence there but no, not there either. After a couple of hundred laps of the fence, they decided that there wasn't any way they were going to be able to get out so they just scratched around a bit, one of their favourite things to do.

Omelette, for some reason known only to her, was doing her seal impression for most of the late afternoon yesterday. This is where she walks around barking like a seal, yes chicken fans, our chicken thinks she's a seal (or a dog, as it sounds like a dog sometimes too). The gorgeous one went into their area and Omelette was barking at him and he asked her if she was having a go at him and I swear that chicken said yes, or made a noise that sounded like a yes. Perhaps they aren't as stupid as we first thought, or maybe I just have spent too much time with them...

Escape

Mabel got out! The sneaky chicken worked out she could get under the fence on one side and so she escaped into the rest of the garden. I put her back and she got out again. I put her back and then watched to see how she was getting out. The other two couldn't work it out either - I always knew Mabel was the smart one (well, smart by chicken standards). I have temporarily ensured that she can't get under the fence but she is now just hanging around that area trying to get out again.

The permanent fence will have to be pretty chicken proof... Ha! a chicken proof fence...

Don't fence me in

Omelette is less than pleased with the progression of the garden works. Although they all wanted to help at the weekend when we were levelling the ground in order to build the new shed (which I think we did a pretty good job of actually). When I say help, what I mean is, help by making sure they ate the biggest spiders and the juiciest worms (obviously they aren't any good with a hammer, it's too heavy).

On Sunday they enjoyed the full freedom of the garden for the last time! We built the shed and tidied up the gravel (where they had dug escape tunnels) and replaced the weed membrane where it was supposed to be (under the gravel to stop the weeds coming through) and lovely Nana helped me clear up the leaves from the Red Robin, making a real difference to the look of the garden.

Last night, while I was on a seemingly never-ending train journey from Manchester, the gorgeous one came home and put up a temporary fence to keep the girls at the end of the garden. Now before I get letters of complaint, they still have a great big area for them to run around in, but we get our garden back and when I say 'we' I mean my poor cat too. He also cleaned the decking down and if wood could gleam, this deck would be gleaming, he did a brilliant job on it and I can now go out in bare feet if I want to and I don't have to watch where I step! Yay!

Although, as I said Omelette is less than impressed, Mabel and Yoko seem to be quite happy wandering around scratching and pecking at things, but Omelette is pacing the perimeter looking for weak spots in the fence. She must have walked the length of the fence a hundred times looking for a way out. Behing the shed, beside the tree, at the ends, back behind the shed, just in case she missed something...

Now they're all huddled together like they are plotting something, I must keep an eye on them and make sure they're not tucking dirt under their wings and scattering it as they walk along...