Sunday 10 July 2011

New Chickens on the block!

We've had a bit of a weird week, so we thought we'd get out the house for a while.
    Putting on our shoes Jo, Kane and I jumped in the car and went to St Martin's Wood to have a look at some chickens and buy some feed. It's a nice drive, only about 20 minutes, but it's enough of a change to clear the head and see some beautiful countryside - sometimes that's all you need!
   Jo had found their Facebook page and discovered that there was a discount, offered by the new owners, for this weekend only. The only way to secure this discount was to mention the new addition to their family, which was an Alsatian puppy called Indy. It all seemed a bit cloak and dagger if you ask me - walking up to the owner and saying in hushed tones;

"You have an Alsatian puppy called Indy"

I half expected him to say something back like "the larks fly at night"! It was a bit weird!

Anyway, we looked around and chatted about what sort of chickens we liked and the gentleman showed us what stock he had in. There were a lot of lovely looking chickens there, and it took a few minutes of looking at each other and debating to find out that we were actually going to buy some then and there.

Jo started to look around and pick chickens while the man tried to corner them and catch them - he said he could catch them first time, but seemed to have more than a bit of trouble catching the ones Jo and Kane wanted. Admittedly they were running around like Usain Bolt!

The chickens were put in a large box with plenty of holes, and then put in the back of the car with Kane keeping a good eye on them. Two bags of feed followed the box into the back of the car. I paid for the lot and also a large water dispenser which I will pick up next weekend as they were out of stock at the time - but we got the 10% discount which was really worth it in the end!

So, to the bit you've been looking forward to - the unveiling of my new 'ladies'.





So there you go - the gentle integration of our 4 new ladies into the family. I put them in with Star and two Isa Reds as Star is the youngest and fittest cockerel and will outlive Rhydian - sounds harsh, but it's how life goes I guess.

Thanks to Jo for those photos, below are the close up pics I took whilst inside the run. We have two Red Rock and two Blue Haze chickens.

Our Blue Haze ladies.

Checking out their new home.

A close up of one of the Red Rocks.

An unsure Star looks on.


I kept an eye on them most of the afternoon, and they kept themselves to themselves mostly, the new ladies taking over the coop, while Star, Queenie and Minnie decided the corner of the run was the best place to watch the new girls. Star tried several times to be amorous, but the new girls weren't having any of it - apart from once. We only have one name so far - as one of the Blue Haze birds has the lightest colouring, but is also heavy - so I thought of calling her Stone to start with (cos of the weight and colour) but Jo came up with Joss - as in Joss Stone. I'm happy with that!  

Then in the evening Kane and I spent the second night in a tent in our garden - next post I expect!

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Lewes Boccia club update

Since I started Lewes Boccia there have been some changes.

I always envisaged the club to be open to everyone without limitations, but to start with I had to narrow the field down for what was specifically needed at the time which was a club tailored to my son Zak's needs.

Since running the taster sessions and the multisports sessions at Wave Leisure centre, the club has at last totally opened up to all ages and all disabilities.

On the 11th June, Zak and I (and Jo and Kane!) went to Northease Manor school, which isn't far from where we live, to promote Lewes Boccia. We arrived to find two long tables placed for us, and we set about putting our information out - plus our balloon bunting! 

We had photographs of our sessions, information packs, Lewes Boccia stickers, tee shirts and various equipment to show people what Boccia is all about. 

Here we are behind our promotion table. I thought of taking our big garden umbrella and stand as it looked like rain - good job we did as it threw it down for about 10 minutes!


It's not a particularly big fete, but it was our first time of promoting our club. We met a surprising amount of people when they visited our stall to see what Lewes Boccia was, and we were able to give out our information packs and a LOAD of stickers!


It was great to meet everyone that day, and we even met one lad who came from Zak's school! Overall it was a good day, and is something we shall definitely do again when we get the chance!