I have this dilemma...

I’ve got too many interests.

I love painting and sketching. I love gardening. I love nature. I love succulents. I love my memories. I love chickens. I love books. I’m interested in simple living, I’m interested in the health and well-being of the mind and body and our planet, I like home-made remedies and love deep discussions on religion (or the lack of it) and I love doing various crafts, like making jewellery and every now and then I love a good recipe.

And I’ve got a blog for each one. Seventeen of them to be exact. And a few in Afrikaans. Plus ten that I’ve made private. I love blogging, writing and sharing my interests, and I’m blessed that I do actually have the time, but it’s killing me, trying to keep up with all of them! I feel guilty when I neglect one of them and then will probably end up posting any drivel just so the blog can stay alive.

And you might ask, “Why?! Why so many? Why not just have one blog for all of it?” And I actually do feel a bit silly having so many blogs, even Blogger is getting suspicious, wanting to know whether I’m a Robot when I post a lot! Even though the limit on the number of blogs one can have is 100. I wonder if there is anyone that has reached that limit…?

Well, here’s the thing. I feel that, when I subscribe to a blog, it’s because I’m interested in that particular topic, say for example chickens or art, and if there is all sorts of other random topics included, I probably won’t subscribe. There’s a gardening blog I love, but every now and then (in fact, more often than not!), the lady includes posts on do-it-yourself furniture making and restoration, and I’m not interested in that at all. So eventually I unsubscribed from her blog. And the people that are subscribing to and reading my various blogs are, so I presume, doing it because they’re interested in that particular topic.

So here’s my question - how do you feel about the matter? To do or not to do so many blogs? Should I just have one blog and combine everything in there? Would the regular readers of say, my Nature Journal or my gardening blog, still visit my blog?

I would love to hear what you think!

Eager for Winter?

The middle of winter here in S.A., and while the rest of the garden is snoozing, the Cape Reed Grass is growing as if it's spring, sending out new shoots and looking absolutely lovely! Until the chickens discover this new delight, that is. As you can see from the old growth, this plant is their favourite to climb on top of. I've had a close look inside, to see if there's anything special that they might be feeding on, worms, grubs, something, but I couldn't find anything. And I got pricked to boot, those little stalks are firm and hard! Maybe they get a good tummy massage... Mmmmm.....

My garden is definitely looking worse for the wear - every bit of greenery (as you can see on the Sword fern on the left) is being utilized by my chooks seeing as the lawn is mostly dead and brown. They're great grazers, chickens, and besides insects and their daily diet of corn, they spend the rest of the day snacking on the tender little shoots on the lawn.

And it’s that time of the year again – winter, dry grass and veld fires. And even though all our fire breaks have been done and the grass is very short, a strong wind fanned the flames to sometimes huge proportions, picking up pieces of the flames and throwing them into the air like dancing angels.

One of our workers seemingly fighting a losing battle trying to stop the fire from spreading on our smallholding. To the right outside the pic are several other workers also trying their best. One of the drawbacks of being on a farm or smallholding is no municipal services like refuse collection or fire brigade services, even though we do pay our fair share of rates and taxes!

 The aftermath - this fire spread from our neighbour’s property (the yellow house) through our property, instantly leaving the landscape charred and little animals fleeing for their life.

As soon as the land cooled off a bit, the Herons, Egrets and Plovers were out in force, snacking on crispy tit-bits

This Black-headed Heron (Ardea melanocephala) is a regular summer visitor to our smallholding and doesn't get particularly perturbed by being photographed. It often feeds in shallow water, spearing fish or frogs with its long, sharp bill. It will also hunt well away from water, taking large insects, small mammals, and birds. It will wait motionless for its prey, or slowly stalk its victim. Both sexes are alike, so I have no idea whether this is a male or a female.

The Karoo Thrush and his/her mate are still hard at work annexing my Robin's territory, finishing the fruit I put out before Robbie even knows it's there.

My pond has sprung a leak, right at the bottom, and at the worst possible time in this freezing weather.

This is how much it has drained so far. Next step is to scoop out the last bit of water (being careful and keeping an eye open for any aquatic wildlife, there are quite a few water scorpions, water beetles and frogs in there), repair the leak, give it a couple of days to dry and then fill it up again, but I'm waiting for a day a bit warmer than 16℃!

“Thy breath be rude," William Shakespeare famously told winter in As You Like It, invoking a common complaint about the season: winter is cold, windy, bleak, awful, a common outlook still persisting today. But I don't agree. Cold, yes, awful, no. I think the trees enjoy the well-earned rest, all the birds in my garden carry on about their daily business as usual and it is invigorating digging and doing chores when the weather is cooler.

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My new chicken coop Episode 7 - Finally finished & the big move on 20th Dec 2012

Even though the actual work days on my new chicken coop was only 15 days, it took 2 months to finish - if it wasn't raining, the builder never pitched or there was a delay in the delivery of building materials. And, of course, Saturdays and Sundays in between when the builders didn't work.

But at last the coop was finished and Artemis and the girls could move in!

Early Thursday morning on the 20th December 2012, as soon as the girls were out in the garden, we moved in and broke down the old little coop - leaving a small, but obvious empty patch in the corner of the run. I wondered what the girls were gonna think of that when they returned to the coop late-afternoon!

I got Chrissie, my gardener, to select a few over-crowded Kniphofias (Red Hot Pokers) and Marigolds from the garden and we put in a few just to get the garden going.

First to go in was some straw bedding for the floor and nesting boxes, followed by the roosts. I put in two roosts at opposite ends of the room just in case there was some fighting, as everybody always wants to be right on the top rung.

As my day progressed, carrying in decorating items, a few of the girls popped in to see what was going on. Kiep, being the alpha-hen, was the first to inspect everything. She gave all the nest boxes a once-over and promptly settled into one of the top nest boxes which, to this day, is her favourite laying place, and beware anybody that dares to occupy it when she needs to do her business!

Hettie and Micky were next to come and have a peek, followed by Snooky and it wasn't long before they joined Kiep, also in the top next boxes.

Some Marigold and Nasturtium pot-pourri on the floor to keep insects at bay - stepping on this releases a lovely fragrance.

Evening time, with everybody getting ready for bed, was quite hilarious! First of all they milled around for a bit, but Artemis soon escorted them into the coop as dusk rolled in and with no old coop to return to. Everybody had a go at every rung of the ladder, waiting for Artemis to settle down and set the trend.

Positions kept on changing as everybody was josstling for the best roost.

Finally Artemis started ascending the ladder - he's such a gentleman, always giving the ladies first choice!
 

The front window from the outside - we used chicken wire for security, securing the wire with a wooden frame

The front window from the inside, looking out onto the garden. I placed a shelf in front of this window and if I'm a bit late in opening in the mornings, you will find two or three of the girls on the shelf, anxiously peering out to see when I'm coming.

A little duck and a 'peace' sign, ready to go up on the wall somewhere.

An old chandelier will supply lighting. We haven't laid on electricity to the coop yet, I'm having second thoughts, I've read so much about accidents in a coop with electricity that the chandelier might just stay as a decoration. I also put up one of my paintings of Mr. Chook, who no longer is with me, in poster form.

An old framed painting of some chickens adorns the wall above the roost.

Close-up of the chicken painting 

I still have lots more decorating to do - I want to put some curtains in front of all the next boxes for privacy - chooks just LOVE privacy when they're laying their eggs!

Image from "Fresh Eggs Daily"

A window flower box would also not be amiss!

The garden in the run is coming along nicely, the Kniphofias have taken well and so has the Zebra grass. 

The new coop is situated right next to my bathroom garden (that's the Wild Olive tree in my garden sticking out behind the coop's roof), so it's close enough for me to hear if anything should happen in the coop. The steel door closes snugly at night and enough air can circulate from the mesh-covered window openings. A safe haven against predators and the elements for my chooks!

Well, there you have it! But nothing is ever finished and this on-going project will keep me busy for a long time to come still

Like for instance this - how sweet is this?! 

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My new chicken coop Episode 6 - Days 12 - 15

Day 12 - Monday morning, and the girls were eagerly waiting to enter the garden. I fed them, opened the gate and excitedly thought that today was the day the screed for the floor was going to be done! Tomorrow we could start painting and then the girls could move in! The time was nigh!

At the end of Day 12, the floor was done and we were just waiting for it to dry so that the painting could start.

 Day 12

Day 12

Day 12 - floor finished

Tuesday Day 13 and the painting started inside

Day 13

 Early on Wednesday, Day 14, Solomon started painting the outside

 Day 14

 Day 14

Day 14 - The painting of the outside of the coop was finished and the workers ended the day by cleaning up, removing all their tools and now the rest was up to me!

Thursday, Day 15 - I was up bright and early and started preparing the inside for the girls, as I would like them to move in before the weekend. I prepared the nest boxes, filling them with some lovely fresh grass while Solly constructed a roost for me.

 Day 15 - the new roost with fresh grass underneath to catch droppings

 Day 15

Day 15 - Yesterday Solomon finished with the outside painting quite early, so I asked him to construct a divider wall at the one end of the coop as I needed some space to house tools, buckets, food and the like.

End of Thursday, Day 15, and tomorrow is the big move. I can hardly wait! See you soon with the last episode!

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