Have been in Cornwall over the weekend. The weather was fantastic. There is nothing like the company of good friends and several bottles of chilled fizz for a bit of lateral thinking.

For several years I have wanted to move to Cornwall we have felt unable to do it due to the education of our teenage girls, however this weekend we think that we have come up with a cunning plan that might mean that we can move there in about eighteen months rather than four years.

Whilst I was away the first of the chicks hatched it has been joined by four more today and I hope that by tomorrow the rest of this batch will have hatched. This has meant that not only have I been cutting down brambles all day I have also cleaned out the brooding shed. This was not a job for the faint hearted but it had to be done more is the pity. There are times when a little man that comes in and does would be great the possibilities seem limitless...... have just had a cold shower and am now back on track.

We now (thanks to Steve) have three less cockerels, anyone who ever thought that you could never have enough cocks is wrong. You can and I did. Plucking chickens is not one of my favorite hobbies, it's messy smelly and unpleasant and as these had not been bred for the table they were a little scrawny so I cheated and just removed the breasts.

I am contemplating whether to try making nettle soup I am not sure that I can bring myself to do it as this really is like knitting your own yogurt. I don't think that I am ready for that yet maybe that is something that will have to wait until Cornwall!

I have just logged on to spell check last nights entry and I suspect that I have deleted it. Computers and I do not mix. Now if I can just breath and relax.......

Last night was spent in the spare room. I could'nt sleep so took myself off. with what turned out to be a bloody awful book, so as not to keep the Silverback awake.

Despite not being able to sleep the night wasn't too bad as I got to listen to the radio all night and having finally got to sleeep at about five woke up the dulcet tones of James Noughtie, this is a rare treat as Steve dosn't like being woken by the radio let alone radio four.

Have just checked on the chicken in the dining room it is venturing further afield and I am going to have to contain it (a roasting dish seems like a good option but it is still too small). As the other chicks should be hatching on Monday the problem will soon be solved, the whole lot can go out into a shed and I can have the dining room back, that is if you discount the three incubators that are currently humming (well they can't whistle) away in there.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a chick to crap produced ratio study I am sure that they have, probably spent alot of tax payers money on it too. It is actually a very simple equation small chick...huge ammount of crap.

Well that is it for today. I refuse to write too much as I will probably delete it.

Back to chickens enough of that philosophy stuff.

I do chickens in a big way. Right now we have a chicken in our dining room this is a little eccentric even for me but, one of my chickens went broody a little early in the season she hatched out eight chicks and they rapidly succomed to the cold and wet there was one surviving chick which I found cold wet and on it's last legs. I bought it in and put it on the aga expecting it to die. It didn't.

I have a shed that I rear chicks in but it seemed a little nonsesical to raise one chick in the shed so I put it under a heat lamp in a cardboard box in the dining room.

Ten days later it has out grown it's box and it now has the run of the dining room. This is not an ideal situation by any means but it shouldn't be for much longer.

I saw my sister for the first time in a while yesterday. It was a delight to see her but to our horror we realized that we had become fully fledged GOW.

This is something that we had never intended, she feels that she is becoming more like our Father and I feel that I am becoming more like our mother. This in turn begged the question did they, when they were our age, feel as we do? I suspect that they did. We didn't know because we were to young to understand.

The rage and frustration that she and I feel seems to be permenantly with us. In the end we put it down (mainly) to lack of financial independence, a growing intolerance for fools, oh and guilt of course (we women do that so well).

As I type this I realize that this might sound shallow but neither of us are.

We are part of the first generation that was told that we could have it all, well it didn't turn out quite like that. In fact it hasn't turned out like that at all.

A lot of women of our age turn to God or roses. Rightly or wrongly God never did it for me and at the moment roses, (plants not chocolate), can't. I have turned to the odd bottle of Pinot Grigio! Unfortunatly my sister is allergic to wine, now that would really do it for me. So maybe there is a God after all!

The weekend has been warm and sunny and so along with thousands of other people we headed out into the garden. The thousands of other peoples were not in our garden they were in their own gardens. The detritus of the winter was picked up and we tutted over the length of the grass we even whent so far as to look at the lawn mower then both found far more important things to do.

The silver back did blokey stuff on the patio like washing down chairs. I went into the field and cut down brambles. Under the brambles I found threee hawthorn trees. The brambles were so dense that the ground under the hawthorns was dry the chickens will have a whale of a time here scratching about and dust bathing and the plan ois that in doing this they will prevent the brambles from regrowing time will tell.

One goose is now sitting on a large clutch of eggs once she started sitting tight I put ytwelve goose eggs into one of the incubators in the hope that they will all hatch out together and the goose will adopt the incubator goslings thus freeing up one of the brooding sheds for ducklings and chicks.

The ducks continue to lay in the most stupid places and each morning I can be seen scouring the field looking for eggs in an attempt to get to them befor the magpies. God only knows what the neighbours think. I suspect that \I am known as the mad chicken woman locally.

My Mother once gave me a good telling off for referring to a lady who I happened to notice walking down the road as a woman. She was indeed a woman not a bloke but should have been refeerred to as a lady I must have been about ten. I didn't understand why I goit the bollocking then but the memory is still with me.

Am off to meet my sistyer today I havn't sen her for a while and am looking forward to it.

The children are on holiday for the next two weeks ohh joy.

They will no doubt be complaining about being bored within 10 minutes of gettingg up in the mornings. I refuse to entertain them. Their social life or lack of it is as far as I am concerned their responsibility.

Just recently I have mentioned to the Silverback that I have felt moer and more like the painting of the scream by .....We watched Gumpy Old Women last night. It is nowhere near as funny as Grumpy OLd men but I found myself in agreement with the women on there with the exception of Janet Street Porter who I refuse to be in agreement with just because I can't stand the woman. Trying to put a finger on what is causing this rage and at times despair is more than a little tricky.

Bright sunny day and very warm. Have spent a good deal of the day washing chickens. Chickens and water do not mix very well. The silverback was not too impressed by the state of the kitchen when I had finished.

Parents evening last night. It's the last thing that I wanted to do at 7pm but duty called and having got there it was rather pleasant hearing good reports about child no 4. Almost makes the last 13 tears of training her worthwhile! As the youngest she has always lacked confidence and spent her life in the shadow of the three elder children she now seems to be coming into her own which is great. She now wants to do and extra GCSE. Good on her. Will write to the school at the end of the week I expect a fight.

Its a bright sunny morning and the weather forecasters tell us that warm weather is on it's way for the weekend. God forbid the BBQs will be out in force. They seem to appear earlier and earlier each year, must be global warming I am sure that the today programme will pick up on it soon and be asking for listeners help with the first BBQ of of the year survey!

In the chicken pen I have noticed that the hens with feathered legs have become clogged up with mud only to be expected I suppose but I will have to wash them. Not sure at this point if I should use the short cycle on 30 degrees or the heavy soil on 60 degerrs will ponder on that during the day.

Well the silver back woke up on fine grumpy form this morning. I can only think that nature has determined that we have progressed to rollover grumpiness. Oh joy! He used to wake up in a good mood, admittedly it wouldn't last for long but it was a brief respite.

Tuesday 15th March.

Cold and cloudy and that's just the weather. Magpies are becomming a real problem they are stealing the ducks eggs, if the ducks didn't lay in such stupid places the magpies wouldn't eat them. If I ever manage to hatch out some eggs (not me personally) the magpies will steal the ducklings, drastic measures are called for. Tomorrow will see me shotgun at the ready.

I shall have to clean out the rearing shed and rat proof it not a job that I relish ohh for a little man that does. Come to think of it a big good looking man that does would be even better. Hold that thought.

Monday March the something there you see that about sums today up so far..I don't know what the bloody date is. There used to be a time when knowing the date was easy but now in the days of gadgets that make life easy I haven't got a clue and can I see a date on this computer screen? no I can't.

I always thought that as I got older life would become better,easier, more fulfilling, has it hell.

I got up this morning with a clear plan in mind as to what I would get done today. Life, I have discovered has a way of intervening and today it has intervened in a big way, so far nothing that I had planned has been done, this I just know will send the entire week out of kilter.

Still on the bright side.... I can feel a long pause coming on here whilst I try and think of the bright side.

Couldn't think of a bright side so I went and dug half a pond instead. Whilst in the paddock noticed that the drakes are getting randy, I always thought that chickens had small brains but the drakes have taken to pursuing the hens with vigor stupid bloody things.

One of the geese has finally gone broody which means that I can now look forward to being goosed literally, by irate ganders for the next two months. Yippee! I shall get my own back at Christmas.

Egg numbers are rising rapidly with the increase of daylight hours shall soon have them comming out of my ears. I am trying to psychmyself up for cleaning out the chicken sheds however hard I try I cannot bring myself to look forward to the day that I spend up to my eyeballs in chicken shit whilst being eaten alive by mites.