Chickens playing out in the garden

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 0 comments

Since it is a nice (if windy) day and Lily-dog was distracted in the top part of the garden barking at the bin men (they’re stealing our rubbish, woof woof woof!), I decided to let some of the chickens play out in the garden this morning. (Because the garden is pretty open at the moment, and there is invariably a dog running around, this doesn’t happen much.)

Mauve, Blue and slowly refeathering Lime – three of the original ISA Browns – were the first batch out – enjoying the good pickings of the raised bed next to the coop, including a rather succulent and long worm! (Photos of Mauve, Blue then Lime & Blue)

Chicken coop to-dos

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 3 comments

(I tried really, really hard to get a “cock-a-doodle-to-do” pun going on in the title but failed.)

I had a day away from my computer yesterday to catch up on outside & animal chores – and one of the things on my list was to give the chicken coop a mega-super clean.

I spotted what I thought was white mould all over the coop yesterday and knowing that’s, you know, not good, I stripped everything out this morning — everything that could be reasonably easily removed/taken apart got taken out so I could scrub *everywhere* down, from every angle.

The coop is about 4ft by 4ft square, with a sloped roof going up to about 4ft high in the middle, and it’s on stilts raising it about 18ins off the ground. I had to climb inside to be able to scrub the roof with (watered-down) disinfectant – perching like a giant chicken until my thighs were jelly! – and it was only when I did so that I realised the vast majority of the suspected white mould spores were actually just damp red mite powder from my last coop dousing. Still, since I was in there, and at least three chickens were in there at all times (keeping an eye on me in their house), I thought I might as well continue with the scrub down.

(Speaking of red mites, they’re back again – we had a few weeks with no sign of them (I presume they don’t like the really cold weather?) but now a small colony has return. I scrubbed it away yesterday but will dust the coop and the chickens this afternoon – I ran out of time yesterday – so I guess that’s To Do #1: dust chickens & coop for red mites.)

The bits of mould that were actually mould were inside the roof – and the roof itself looked damp. I scrapped all the accumulated wet leaves off the top of it in case that was adding the problem but suspect it’s just a bit leaky too – leaks between the wooden slats – so that’s To Do #2: explore a better roofing option.

The wood used for building the coop was treated before it was put together but after a wet nearly-year, I think it’ll need treating again so that’s To Do #3: reseal/treat all the wood. I’ll have to wait for a couple of warm, dry days for that – and will probably have to work out a way to keep it off-limits to the chickens for as long as possible.

Another thing I need to consider is improving the ventilation – poor ventilation is a key cause of mould. Funnily enough, I had thought that the ventilation “window” might have been too big for these cold winter nights – seems like the opposite was the case. Not sure how I’ll improve that without making it draughty or causing more damp spots so that’s To Do #4: figure out how to improve the ventilation without making more problems for myself.

Finally, an idea I had earlier in the winter but haven’t yet implemented has to go on my list: To Do #5: install a suspended floor that is easy to clean and insulated underneath. The current floor is made up of slats so there are little grooves inbetween each piece which accumulated grime – a floor made up from a single piece of wood (or two pieces to make it easier to move) and possibly covered with a scrap of lino would be a lot easier to keep clean. It could easily be “suspended” as there is a wooden baton, about 3cm high, all around the rim of the coop (where the sides are screwed onto) so could rest on that, with some cross bars so it doesn’t sag in the middle. The loss of height wouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Outside of the coop, in the run, there are a couple more things that will need attention this year:

• Reattach their play perches – some of them are a bit wobbly now
• Rat-proof it – the run was built to prevent foxes getting in but we didn’t consider rats. There are a few places where some wire and concrete will easily solve the problem.
• More wood chips – we put about half a tonne of wood chips in the run when we first set it up, then another tonne a month or so later – and I think we need another top up now. (Given the run is four flights of stairs down from the road, it’s a workout!). We use a deep litter principle in the run – the wood chips absorb the poop and rot down to compost. At some point, we’ll dig it out but for the moment, while the reclaimed ground underneath is still settling, we can just keep piling it on.

I guess having that not-strictly-needed cleaning time to think about these things will ultimately be for the best but now I have another eight jobs on my to-do list, I’m not feeling the joy right now!

If you’ve got chickens, anything special on your chores list for the coming months?

Will we regret our frugalness?

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 11 January 2011 in frugal, meta | 7 comments

At the weekend, I was catching up (online) with the Saturday papers from during my no spend period. We only buy the paper on Saturdays and not ever week – but I very much enjoy it when we do get it. I know I can read it all on the internet for free but every now and then it’s worth £1.90 to force me to get off my laptop for a few hours and it encourages me to read articles I wouldn’t seek out online.

So anyway, I was catching up with what I’d missed when I came across an article trying to be the opposite of every new year’s article: “How to be a better person in 2011: Abandon resolutions. Stop looking for a soulmate. Reject positive thinking“. The paragraph that caught my attention was, unsurprisingly, the one on frugality (about half way down the page):

I’m not sure I’d agree with the idea that “the most efficient way to save money, obviously, is to cut out big expenditures, not small ones” (because “an overpriced latte [and] breakfast croissant” each day is, say, £4, which is £20 a week, £80 a month, nearly £1000 a year — I don’t make any easily avoidable £1000 purchases a year) but I think the rest of the section is interesting. I think it’s especially interesting that the reason I came to it a week late was because I’d forfeited a small pleasure with a decent cost-to-happiness ratio for the sake of frugality ;)

What do you think? If your frugality requires present-time denial (and whose doesn’t?), do you think you might regret it in the long run?

A story: ten years ago, when we were students/young graduates, a then-friend of mine’s dad told her to never say no to a night out – not wild expensive nights out, just a trip to the pub or the cinema – with friends because she didn’t think she could afford it. Sure, he was encouraging her to get into debt but he knew that she’d regret it more in the long run if she didn’t enjoy her youth. I thought it was some of the best dad advice ever and that summer – my only six months of singledom as an adult – I was out doing something or other six nights a week, lots of “daily hedonistic expenditure”, and even though I lived extremely frugally at home, my bank account was in the red the whole time. I don’t regret that in the slightest: it was lots of fun.

I don’t think I’m denying myself too much now – we’re not extremely frugal and still have plenty of treats/fun – but there are ways, big and little, where we hold ourselves back. In ten years time, who knows how I’ll feel about that…?

’12 in 11′ Clothes challenge update

Posted by louisa on Monday 10 January 2011 in anti-consumerism, frugal, less than 12 clothes challenge, low spend 11 | 9 comments

So last week I announced my personal clothing challenge for 2011: buy no more than 12 items of clothing across the year.

Since then, a number of most excellent people have said they’ll join in the fun:

• Taphophile
• Lyns
• Alice (I think…)
• Deb/Urbanwide
• Aunty Rubbish
• digitigrade
• SBlove_crafts
• Jan
• UPDATE: Colleen
• UPDATE: Joris
• UPDATE: Maria
• UPDATE: Mel

A few other people have said they’re doing/will do something similar:

• Su is trying WW2-style rationing – she has an allowance of ration coupons which can be spent on different things throughout the year. The “social history of the Second World War” nut in me loves this idea!
• bookstorebabe can’t commit to the full challenge but will consciously recording all her purchases throughout the year, which I think is very useful in making consumption changes
• damigeron has said he’ll be more conscious about it, if he remembers to be ;)

It’s great to see so many people up for a bit of a challenge in 2011! I can’t wait to see how it goes!

(Apologies if I’ve missed anyone out! Do let me know and I’ll add you to the list!)

Quick bread: no-rising-time soda bread recipe

Posted by louisa on Friday 7 January 2011 in cooking, recipes | 17 comments

The other week, I asked about how people manage with baking when the weather is cooler – when it’s hard to maintain a yeast-friendly heat for bread to rise (especially if you’re going for a 12-18hr slow rise bread).

In the comments, Karen M said:

In my rural living days without electricity or central heating, we ate a lot of bannock and other unleavened breads in the cold times.

A smack-the-forehead moment for me. Unleavened bread, of course!

I hadn’t heard of bannock but John loves its Irish cousin, soda bread so I decided to give that a go. After trying his first slice of my first soda bread, John declared we’re never buying shop-bought bread again. We will, of course, but I liked his sentiment ;) I’ve made it a few times now and it’s been a hit each time.

Soda bread is super quick to make. Most bread relies on yeast “breathing” to create carbon dioxide bubbles but soda bread uses the chemical reaction between the alkaline bicarbonate of soda and something acidic (like vinegar, lemon juice or cream of tartar) to make the gas instead. It’s an instant reaction rather than something that has to build up over time – so no need for rising time or proving time.

And extending kneading is a no-no too – the reaction works best if it’s happening in a warm environment so it needs to be mixed, shaped and bam! straight into the oven. Super fast.

It’s a dense bread – no big yeasty air bubbles like in good yeast-based bread – but the sponge is soft and a touch sweet. Possibly because of the slight sweet milkiness or possibly because of the texture, there is something scone-like about it for me – but it’s considerably lower fat than actual scones.

Like scones though, it’s fantastic with butter and jam. Or dipped in a hearty soup.