What a sod!

No - I'm not swearing at anyone - I'm just describing what sort of job I did yesterday!

Now, you may remember I worked very hard at lifting the old turf off our back lawn at our old house...

...well yesterday I spent the day lifting sods and carefully placing them in a weird sort of puzzle on the bare ground.

I was told by the nice man who delivered to me from Perfect Turf that I should lay the turf round the edges of the garden and work to them - that way I'd get a nice clean edge along the border, rather than a jagged line where I'd cut them in.

I started nice and quickly, I think it was because it was a new and exciting job that I'd never done before. Either that or someone had secreted a strange chemical into the turf, cos either way it seemed fun!

I decided (all by myself!) that I was going to lay the turfs in a brick formation, this seemed effective and gave me straight lines that I could work to. I hadn't bothered to set out wires or string, mainly because I couldn't be bothered - but mainly because I didn't have any wire or string to set out.

Now then, I was a little stuck for something to cut the turf with, but I found in a kitchen draw a table knife, so with this in hand I set out to trim that turf!





I had a break to go pick Kane up from school, then I went straight back to the matter in hand.



After finishing the job at last, I plugged the hose in and gave the whole lot a lovely long drink, to give it a good start in life.

Job done!

Ocassionally I find causes that I want to support, and this is one of them. We took some ex batts in last year, and so I feel it's good to give something extra back.

The below rescue is in Norfolk.

The following is what I have been asked to copy and post on this blog;

Little Hen Rescue desperately need homes for the last remaining battery hens of a farm due to shut down. The slaughter man has been booked by the farmer for 29th June, these hens will be slaughtered unless homes are found ASAP. After spending 18 miserable months of their short lives in a hell hole, never seeing daylight or grass, never knowing what the sun feels like on their backs, they will be held by the legs and roughly put into crates, loaded up like rubbish and killed. All for cheap crappy eggs.

Many co-ordination points have and are being set up to accommodate as wide an area for re homing as possible. If you can give a home to some very needy hens, or can help in other ways ie putting up posters or donating, please contact LHR @ http://www.littlehenrescue.co.uk/
If you have been thinking about re homing some ex battery hens but are unsure, please feel free to join the Ex Battery Hens Forum for very friendly and helpful advice http://www.exbatteryhens.com/

If you are a blogger, please pop a post on your blog to help raise awareness.

Please, support LHR and help them to get these hens out.

Many thanks for reading,

Stiggy

To turf or not to turf.

We're sprucing up the house we've just moved from, so we can put it on the market, one of the jobs that we had designated to a pro was the garden.

Since the grass hadn't been cut since last October, it had grown long, bent over and made clumps all over the lawn. Unfortunately, the areas underneath the clumps had been starved of light, and the grass had died away, leaving random lumps and bumps...

...not to mention the size of the ant hills - which stood like mini volcanoes amongst the grass!

We decided to get some quotes for re turfing the lawn - that is, to take up all the old grass and top layer of soil, and replace it all with lovely new turf. After we had spoken to a few people, we received a quote to do 140m2, which we felt was way over what we expected, so we took the decision for me to do it myself. In the meanwhile, I cut the grass to see how bad the problem was.





The problem was, I found a turf website that could deliver all the turf for the job for 1/10 of the quote - and the machine to do the job was only cheap for 2 days - so onto the phone I went to organise the machine to be delivered.



After the turfing machine had been delivered, it took me a little while to figure out how to use it, adjust it and make it work for me, but luckily it didn't take very long at all! (I seem to have an affinity with anything with a petrol engine!)



I decided to do only the main part of the lawn, as the bank was too difficult to get the machine on, and anyway - it's not a well used area of grass.



It took me two afternoons (6 hours) to take the turf off the areas I wanted to, which I was very pleased about, as I had never used one of these machines before.

After all the turf was taken up, I had to order a skip, then another afternoon was spent moving all the old stuff into the skip.

Once everything had been cleared and raked to get the nasty stones and lumps out the way, I went round with my weed sprayer and attacked any weeds I could find.



The two tons of topsoil came the next day, and I set about wheelbarrowing the soil to the back garden.

The quote we received was for a group of men to work for about 3 days to re turf our garden...

...had I been able to work full days at the house I would have been able to do the job - on my own - in just 3 days!

I still have a small area to put top soil on before I order the actual turf, which I'll do today, but the really back breaking work is done now - so I'm happy!

While I was working, I found quite a few slow-worms. Most were small, but one was quite large.





I love snakes (never felt like owning one though!), and although I would never expect to actually see a snake in the wild over here in the UK, it was nice to at least be able to hold a slow-worm, and see it's little tongue darting in and out - tasting the air around it...



...I wonder what it thought of me!

(Jo caught me resting and having a drink after figuring out the turf machine)

Grass fun!!

Well, I'm sure not everyone can say that they have had fun with their lawns...

...but I certainly can!!

I have been REALLY busy recently, doing all sorts of jobs and things that have, in all honesty, totally knackered me out!

A few days ago, the weather started to be nice, dry and sunny, so I took the opportunity to get my little tractor out of the shed and cut the back lawn.

In previous attempts, it has only been towards the end of the job that the lines have been reasonably straight and uniform, but today was my lucky day, and almost straight away they were looking good!



As well as cutting the grass, there are some patches of bare earth, which needed to be sown with grass seed. The largest of all these patches was left when a soakaway (basically a big hole in the ground filled with rubble and stones, to let the rainwater drain away properly) was never sorted out.

Jo took some photos of me in the process of sowing the seed rather well I think - you can see how much effort I put in, and how exciting the job was! You've heard of 'extreme sports' well this was 'extreme seeding'!



Once the seed was sown, the ground was in need of a good watering, which again Jo managed to capture rather well!

(Please note the hose on the extreme right of the picture before you think bad of me!)

I then covered the area with bird netting to prevent the little blighters eating all my lovely new grass seed!

This was the start of my outdoor action hero stuff, more to come very soon!

Not so little Ninja!

Kane has been going to little ninjas for just over a month, and last session he picked up his brand new uniform for it!

Little Ninjas is actually a Korean martial art called Soo Bahk Do, and is taught in our local area by the Scriven family. You can find more information by following their link.

Soo Bahk Do was originally called 'Tang Soo Do', but reverted to it's original native name back in the 80's.

When the children go to Little Ninjas, they do a lot of exercise and practice games with their basic moves, which is a really good way of getting them to perfect each move. So for example, they run around the hall around 4 instructors who are all holding pads to hit, and the kids have to hit the pads with either a palm strike, a punch, a chop or a jump.

Kane loves doing these and you really can see the concentration on his face - it's a joy to behold, especially as some of the kids there are probably made to go by their parents - in fact one parent asked if I was taking Kane to Little Ninjas for the discipline aspect of martial arts, I just laughed because we have no problems at ALL with Kane in that respect, and asked Kane why he wanted to go to L.N, to which he replied;

"I want to learn how to kick butt!"

I think that was all that needed to be said really!

There is a little history in Martial arts in our family - I used to practice 'Wing Chun' before I met Jo and got married.

Wing Chun is the Martial art that Bruce Lee first started when he was around 13, although he took several Martial art styles and blended them into his own made system called Jeet Kune Do - 'Way of the Intercepting Fist'.

Kane and I really enjoy performing the 'Forms', which are a series of moves linked together to create a display of moves that the student has learnt.

For Kane's first belt he will have to perform 2 moves of the first form, something he should easily be able to do as together we have learnt the first 10-12 moves!

He looks forward to every lesson, and receives a tag each lesson. After he has collected 8 tags, he then goes to the grading for the next belt - this system is a wonderful way of keeping the kids interested and focuses on their goal.

Would you mess with this kid!?

Dad's Taxi duties gone mad!

Most parents realise that at some point, their driving skills will be asked for by their children.

Most parents expect the odd lift into town, or to drive their little precious ones to one of their friends houses...

Most parents probably don't get asked to drive them around their garden though!

I had to go to the garden centre and get some compost and top soil, and rather than carry the whole lot round to the back of the house, I decided to use the trailer I'd bought for my little tractor.

Kane saw me hitching the trailer up, and asked if he could go for a ride, so, being me, I found some old carpet and put it in the back of the trailer for him to sit on.



Although I didn't go as fast as he would have liked, Kane definitely loved the experience.

The whole thing reminded me of when I was younger. My parents used to take us on a lot of holidays in the UK when we were kids, and every day was packed with activities or visits to various places, depending on where we were of course.

One of these visits was to a Shire Horse farm type place, where we were pulled around the farm in a big trailer with benches either side.

So back to Kane - I thought he'd be sitting up straight in the trailer like I told him to, and when I turned round to see if he was ok and not being bumped around too much...

...I saw that he was lounging with his arms behind his head!



It just made me laugh, as that's typical of him to relax like that.

Trimming time again!

It's one of those things I've been putting off, and with the bad weather it's not been difficult to wait for better weather...

...but today it's absolutely beautiful here. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the hedge was screaming for a trim!



One of the reasons I've been putting it off is because I didn't have the equipment to do the job, I mean, I have the hedge trimmer, I have the harness and the head/ear protection and now I have the bollards to put in the road to make people aware that something is going on by the side of the road.

I put the bollards outside the double yellow lines, giving me an extra 2' working space on top of the 2' or 3' that I have on the walkway.

Putting on my safety vest, and hoping I wouldn't blind the oncoming traffic too much, I set about trimming.

Last year I trimmed the inside of the hedge, in our paddock, but I couldn't reach the very top of the hedge - at least the outside of it - so this was, if you like, the completion of a job started last year!

Half way along I realised I was very hot - being a very sunny day and all, and I took off my harness, my safety vest and my padded thermal builders shirt...

...soon as I had done so, I suddenly realised that my T shirt was soaked in sweat and with the breeze it made me totally frozen, so, I waited for all the traffic to go by that had seen me take all my gear off, then hurriedly put it all back on again!
The main problem with this was that my T shirt and my shirt had cooled down in the breeze, making all my stuff wet AND cold...

....NIIIIICE!

I moved the traffic cones up for my next section and carried on with my work, fussing slightly over the odd twig sticking out of the hedge - can't have wispy bits on OUR hedge you know!

Just as I got to the end of the hedge the engine started to run out of petrol, and luckily I just managed to finish the top before the engine cut out completely.



Today we're having a gardening day. Potatoes need to be planted (a little late) and we have several small shrubs to be planted on.

Maybe the rotorvator will come out today - who knows!

;)


I know one thing - we're going to spend as much time outside today as we can, as it really is such a wonderful day!

At the farm

Jo and I took a short drive up the road to the local farm the other day, this farm has a 'Maize Maze' and lots of animals to look at and learn about, and a lot of local schools go there for a visit so the children can see animals they might not ordinarily see every day.

Just as you drive in there are a few bits of land that hold sheep, pigs and goats. The goats were soaking up the rays on a lovely and warm sunny day!



This one was fast asleep in the sun.



I tried to get some good shots of the sheep that were there but they kept running away or doing rude things!



This photo of one of the pigs doesn't do it justice as far as scale goes - it was MASSIVE!




** EDIT **

Just put the pig photo in it's rightful place - thanks Jo and Ads!

Moles, mowers and Little Ninjas!

This week has been quite busy, what with one thing and another, and I haven't had time to do a post a day - I'm sorry!

Mole attacks!

It started off this week, with more attacks from the mole - THIS time the little wotsit had tunnelled alongside of the humane trap I put in his tunnels!!

Down went two Talpex traps, nothing yet, but I have high hopes as I found the main run between the paddock and the back lawn.

We will see how that goes.

First time for everything!

This week I went out on my lil tractor mower thingy, and not only skimmed the grass and made it all uniform length, it also flattened all the molehills that were over there - after I had dug up the molehills of course! ;)

...but the thing that I wanted to mention, was that one of my ladies - I'm pretty sure she is one of the rescue hens, the one that took on Rhydian once. She has a large comb, quite dark pink/red, but she always follows me round.

Some of my ladies let me stroke them when Rhydian isn't looking, but don't usually do more than that.

Today was different - the aforementioned hen jumped up on my leg as I was sitting on the mower!!

It was really nice chatting to her gently and having her up on my leg - it was a brilliant moment - and a first for me!

Little Ninjas!

Kane has wanted to do martial arts for a long time now. We went to look at a class, about a year ago, called 'Little Ninjas' which is taught at our local leisure centre.

It teaches Soo Bahk Do that originated in Korea, and is a martial art that actually evolves rather than sticking to old forms and techniques.

Kane had remembered all the moves he saw on that one visit to watch a class a year ago so well - he jumped straight in the class and looked like he'd been doing it for ages!

I am SO proud of my boy - he did REALLY well!!

One of the tutors gave him a second hand belt for FREE! Kane also got a 'tag' of insulation tape on his belt.

How the tags work is that you get one tag after each lesson, and once you have eight tags you are then able to do a 'grading' or test in front of the tutors, if you pass you go to the next colour belt!

Oh it's all so exciting, and Kane loves it!

I even got offered a months free trial to see if I would like it - I used to do Wing Chun kung Fu quite some years ago, and want to take up something alongside my (starting soon) gym work.

Here's Kane showing us a 'high block'.

Trimming time!

The other day we decided collectively that the hedges needed a trim, so out with my KM90 I went to smarten up the high hedges in the front.

I have to say here, that my love for power tools and engines really comes into it's own with jobs like this - I could quite happily work all day long doing anything that involved powertools or engines!!

Anyway - back to reality here - it was the first time that I've done the front heges, so I wasn't quite sure of the actual 'shape' of the things, so I went very carefully, and didn't scalp them too much.

Once the cutting had been done, Kane decided to want to help me pick the trimmings up, so after getting dressed for a cold day, we both ventured out, armed only with a fork, rake, wheelbarrow and tons of enthusiasm!



I obviously had to make sure he was doing the job properly, so I found myself in a supervisory role most of the time (below) - mainly as Kane refused to give me the rake! (see picture above)



Although Kane was really helpful I couldn't help feel sorry for the little chap when it came to using the tools and also moving the wheelbarrow, but he did a valiant job. We went to the shed to get his own wheelbarrow which is about 2 feet long and is much, MUCH lighter - also his trowel and hand fork.



Complete with his own gear, his enthusiasm was renewed, and off we went again - first raking into separate piles, then lifting the trimmings into our respective barrows.



Kane was a great help, and we had a lot of fun do 'extra' raking and clearing, as for some unexplained reason, the trimmings seemed to fly across at each other ...

...I have no idea how that happened at all!?!

;)

Mole Update No.2

Well the mole hasn't shown much activity recently apart from 2 mole hills, but the little wotsit is digging furiously around our paddock and garden, 2" under the surface and creating a very unstable ground to walk on!

The other week I was trying to buy some 'Victor©' mole traps - a plunger with spikes on - but unfortunately, although they are one of the most effective mole traps in the world, the UK doesn't like them - so there you go, no dead moles!

I did however manage to find another type of trap, which I am trying out at the moment, called a Talpex trap.



I have set them and they've gone off, but no success at the moment - BUT I recently read that to set these babies properly, you have to literally JUST set the trigger - as fine as you can, and also lay them slightly on their side.

I put both these snippets of information to use yesterday, as I went on a flurry of trap setting!

First I managed to find 2 big runs, main runs, in which I set 2 Talpex traps - then I managed to find the main run going from the paddock, under the path, and into our back lawn. Here I placed a humane mole trap, with the hope that should it get scared by the Talpex's going off - it may run into that one instead!



Mole watch is certainly getting interesting - you start to get to know the 'ways' of the mole you're hunting - it really gets quite personal after a while!

Jo says to get a 'Moleman' in to get rid of our problem, but being a normal, typical man, I just HAVE to sort this out myself!

:D

Be aware of Strokes - act F.A.S.T.!

I'm not usually one for this sort of thing, but recently there has been a lot of publicity on Strokes in the UK - no I'm not talking about loving encounters between partners, but the medical condition.

No-one I know has had a stroke, but the symptoms can sometimes be quite small - so I imagine a lot of people have strokes without even knowing that they've had one!

A quote from the NHS (National Health Service in the UK) F.A.S.T. website;

A stroke is caused by a disturbance of blood supply to the brain. Strokes are the leading cause of disability in the UK and the third most common cause of death after cancer and coronary heart disease. There are two main types of stroke, ischaemic and haemorrhagic which require different types of treatment.

What the campaign is saying is the following;

F - Has their face fallen on one side? Can they smile?

A - Can they raise both arms and keep them there?

S - Is their speech slurred?

T - Time to call 999 if you see any single one of these signs.

More from the NHS website;

A stroke is a medical emergency that requires immediate medical attention. So
recognising the signs and calling 999 for an ambulance is crucial. Quick
diagnosis of stroke is important to understanding the cause, the damage done and
what immediate medical treatment is needed. The sooner somebody who has had a
stroke gets the right medical attention the better their chances of a good
recovery. So minutes really do matter.

I thought I'd do a little research into the subject since I have no prior knowledge of strokes, and found a very interesting couple of pages on what Strokes actually feel like, so here's that link too;

http://dailystrength.org/c/Stroke/forum/474410-answer-does

As I get older, things like this stick in my mind, let's be honest - they scare me!

I'd like to say I played a small part in making people aware of this serious, but misunderstood, medical emergency.

If you click on the picture on the right it will take you to the NHS website on this campaign. - please take a moment and visit - it could save you or someone you love!

Visit to the seaside.

The other day, very soon after receiving my new lens, Jo and I decided to take a visit to a nearby coastal town.

We dined at the most magnificent MacDonalds, and then took a stroll around, over a bridge and back again to our car.

Every time I drive into this town I always love the boat that greets you as you enter - and since I've had my camera, I always say - every time - I really MUST take a few shots of it!

Well today was perfect, so I thought I'd show you what it looks like.



What I love about this old boat is the ropes. You can see over the years where new ropes have been added and tied together, and the wonderful colour of the rust just adds to the whole feeling of a boat that's been loved for a long time.




This next shot is one of my favourites, if not my favourite shot. I wanted to capture the vivid blue of the old tarpaulins, and the ropes hanging, what with the rust in the foreground, it makes for a great view!



It started to turn really cold - especially with the wind chill, so we decided to make our way back to the car. Walking across the bridge, we noticed the timber moorings and decked area across the other side;



..one thing I said I wanted to do with my new lens, was to catch a bird in flight - this one is an ordinary Seagull, but I was amazed at how good the zoom was on my 55-200mm lens, after I had a closer look at this shot!



All in all it was a great afternoon, I really enjoyed myself - and Jo did too - albeit a little on the chilly side!

;)

It's almost DONE!!

I have now combined both of my blogs into this one.

I have tagged all the posts from my other blog with D40 - clicking on this in the 'tag cloud' will show you all the posts, I thought I'd do this to save any confusion.

Hopefully this new and improved blog will entertain the photographers amongst my readers AND my chicken crowd!

I hope you enjoy your stay!

Stiggy

:D

Normal service will be resumed shortly!

I would like to apologise to anyone who reads this blog regularly, if the colours or layouts are strange for the next short while.

This is because I have decided to combine my photography blog with my normal blog.

I will also be changing the graphics, colours and fonts in time, not all at once, and that is why I am apologising in advance for the mayhem that may ensue!

Some items are missing like my blog roll and friends etc, but stick with me, and everything will be sorted as soon as I can possibly manage!

Many thanks,

Stiggy

:D

New toy!

Today Jo received an interesting package in the post...

...it was my Birthday present which Jo very kindly said I could have early!

It's a 55-200mm VR DX Nikon lens!!!

I was so happy to get this, I tried it out on various things, and soon discovered I loved it!

Here are a couple of my first photos to be taken with it!

Early Birthday Present!!

WOOHOO!

Well, this morning came an AWESOME surprise!

Jo had bought me a 55-200mm VR DX Nikon lens!!!!

I've been after one of these for a little while now, so hopefully I should be able to get a lot better and closer shots to the wildlife in our gardens!

Here's one of the first shots I took (through a window!)



I shall have fun with this - I've already thought of loads of ideas!

:D

Snow!

I took a walk around the local area this morning, as we had 6" of snow fall, and what a sight - it's amazing at how you want to capture EVERYTHING!

However, I did managed to take over 400 photos, so you'll have to excuse me if they sort of filter onto this blog - there's a lot of sorting out to do.

I haven't touched up these photos, as I'm still unsure of which ones to properly mount and display, but these should give an idea of the wonderful countryside we live in.

The main (ish) road outside our house...



The path walking down to the fishing lakes...



I loved seeing this - the eye wants to follow the path up and past the sign...



This is a box to hold the local fishing information leaflet...



A similar shot to one on an earlier post...



I loved the reflections on the lakes, it's almost like a winter wonderland.



I hope you enjoy these photos!

Snow! Lots of snow!

Well what a surprise - I was only reading my friend Don's blog about the snow they've been getting recently, and lo and behold - we get it this morning!

I went out early to take some photos, walking down to the fishing lakes a few hundred meters away - you can see them on my photography blog here.

Both Kane and I made sure we were warmly dressed before venturing out to the garden centre a few doors down to buy Kane some Wellies, which luckily they had in his size!

Once we were TOTALLY prepared, we went to the back garden to have a muck about and make a snowman.

Kane spent a lot of time running around in the snow - it's the most snow he has ever seen!



He also made a couple of 'snow angels', but by the time he was finished, he was caked in snow from head to toe, and with a massive smile on his face.

We usually have a theme when we build our snowmen, you see usually we make them on Jo's car as we don't get that much, so we have to make mini snowmen...

...last year or the year before we made the three monkeys (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil)...



...and this year we were able to make a big snowman due to the amount of snow we have. In places the snow is 6" deep, and as I write, the snow is falling heavily again, so expect possibly up to another 6" of snow today!



Anyway, getting back to the snowman, this year it sort of evolved into a 'Stiggy snowman' I made the beard and put my hat on - can you tell the difference?



Zak was watching from inside in the warm, and Kane and I decided to give him a snow fight, so we made lots of snowballs and threw them at the patio doors - Zak REALLY enjoyed his part, and loved every snowball that hit the glass.



With all this snow falling, who knows - we may even be able to make an igloo or something else...


...we shall have to wait and see!

;)


(**EDIT**

I just added the photo of the 3 monkeys...I mean snowmen!)