Our wood chipping afternoon rapidly turned into a couple of hours holding branches and praying that the wood chipper would getting its chomping equipment in gear and actually chip a limb. Greg had gone to the great trouble of teaching me the operational intricacies… basically switch on the tractor, throttle up and pull the lever down, sounds easy but I can even get that wrong, smile. I can’t be good at everything. Eh? Anyway to cut a long and painful story short, we didn’t get many branches shredded or even chipped, firstly I jammed it a couple of times..actually, several times and then the blade broke. NOT my fault I hasten to add.
Matt, Gregs son brought his wife Jodi and grandsons Brennon and Cameron who got up a little too close and personal with Macho, our rutting buck, who isn’t just smelly…he is pungent. The unchipped willow branches came useful ( I knew there was a reason we didn’t get them all done!!) and bows and arrows, adorned with chicken feathers were constructed with only a little blood spilt when Brennon whittled away at himself…not the willow. Quatre constructed a display platform for a very large crows nest. It would appear that in the last storm a crow became dramatically homeless, her loss became our gain and I’m sure visiting children will be interested in the way that these nests are put together. Thank you Quatre. After morning chores, Ursula made THE BEST blackberry pie I have ever tasted…sorry mum. The berries were however not collected without incident, most areas on the farm that are easily approached don’t have any nasties ….we almost killed off the invasive weed but invasive weed was just what Ursula was REALLY wanting and wherever it was, she was going to find enough to make us a pie. And she did, wandering back to the barn with a little bucket of the precious very well fertilized shiny black berries and a smile as big as Germany.
Our baby chicks are nearly all grown up now and it was time to be moved to a grown up house. A chicken roundup was organised and despite a good deal of flapping and a lot of noise ( and that was only Quatre) the babies were re-housed.
Time to go, take care, keep safe, M