the start of it all

Well since i was a child, i wanted to do three things, one of which was live on a small farm with lots of animals...and I have been lucky to do two of the three i hasten to add...and now I am on the third one!
We bought a small Bungalow in August 2007, in the north of Aberdeenshire, with our nearest shop being two and a half miles away..... the property came with a barn, a small walled garden and a very small paddock...all in all just under an acre in total.
The inside of the house was very 70's...you know the sort of thing, swirly loud carpets, flock wall paper...and very dark!
As there was only myself, my partner and the cat at the time, we concentrated on decorating the inside of the house, with the flock wall paper being the first to go, followed by the 80's gray bathroom!
we also decided that as there wasnt a huge amount to do outside, we would take advange of the lovely veg that was growning in the walled garden area and we also decided we want chickens!

Having never owned chickens before, we were very nervous about them disapearing over the hill to the next farm or worse ...to mr fox!...Also so we wouldnt get attached to them we gave them names like Kiev, nugget, Kay, Eff, and Cee...you get the idea!
So to combat this we build a very large coop in the barn..making a hatch in the brick wall so they would go out during the day...this worked at first, but the chickens werent happy...they started to fight even though they had a huge amount of space...they were bored.
Christmas was entertaining...we had family over to stay, my cousin asked...."do any of the farms have chickens near here?" .... we replied with "not the closest two farms ...think the one in the distance does...why?"
she then asked "well who owns the chickens in those fields over there?"
we took one look outside...to see our chickens going for a wander on next doors land!!..the next scene, was my partner....running around the field in his wellies, with a fishing net.....trying to catch the chickens, while my cousins laughed and filmed it all!! The film "chicken run" came to mind! LOL
Yep the chickens were not happy in their home, so in the new year, we had a change of action...we build new hen houses and put them in the walled garden...they have been there ever since and not once tried to escape.
I have to say though...that we did get eggs when they were in the barn...and the day we got our first egg, we also got our first carrot and two pods of broad beans!...we celebrated with an omlete with the veg sliced up finely and added...a true feast from the garden...and we were over the moon!
now we get eggs on a regular basis...so we have learnt to make no end of things ....just to use them up!...and still loving the moment when we collect the eggs from them!!

The next post will be the next step on the small holding!

bye bye for now
kimmie xx