O’Neill Coat (Again)

Back in February I wrote about my fantastically warm O’Neill coat, which only gets worn a couple of times a year, because it’s so damn warm. I’ve had it nearly ten years (I worked out while walking Hound this evening) and worn it less than 50 times all told. But when it’s time to wear it, I know it’s time to wear it – usually because it’s below zero by 4pm, and I’ve had to scrape the ice off the car windows in order to drive home from work.

Tonight was the first time of wearing it this winter – and I suspect there’ll be a few more nights like it over the next week if the BBC Weather report below is anything to go by…

Hens – One Year On

It’s amazing to think that it’s already a year since we got our hens – and I still haven’t actually put up any photos of them, as promised in that linked post. And in fact, it’s a year today that we got the first eggs from them – and since then, we’ve averaged at least two eggs a day for the entire time.

In fact, the only reason we haven’t averaged three eggs a day is because Gladys has gone broody three times this year. We knew when we bought them that the Light Sussex was prone to going broody, so it’s not really been an issue anyway, but it’s just impressive (to me, anyway) that the main thing that has stopped any of the hens from laying has been a natural biological imperative.

All the books we got when we first started thinking about chickens warned that the birds would moult every year (and thus not lay for anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks) so we were expecting that, and it’s never happened. We actually expected far less egg-laying than has actually happened, what with expectations of moults, all hens going broody, laying seasons and the like.

We’ve been really pleased with having the hens – and as we’re now looking at upgrading the hen house, it looks like we’ll be getting more hens in the new year. That should be fun – so long as we can sell the increased numbers of eggs somewhere, we’ll be fine.

Quiet, Washing-Machine At Work

Following on from its demise over the weekend, we got the new washing-machine delivered on Tuesday, along with them taking away the old one for disposal. (a whole £5 extra on the delivery charge)

Wow, what a difference. We’ve used it a couple of times (there having been a bit of a laundry backlog) and it’s impressively quiet. Even at full-speed spin Hound isn’t throwing a paddy, which is a massive improvement on the previous state of affairs.

A lot of the time, we have to look at the damn thing to even be sure it’s still running – we’ve got so used to the noise of the old machine, this one might as well be silent. Somehow even the water-fill is quieter than the previous machine.

So far, so good. I just hope it lasts a similar amount of time to the previous machine.

Mission Successful

For the first time in five years, Hound is lying asleep in the living room with audible fireworks from the next village along.

For the first time ever she’s utterly unfussed by the bangs – and with no additional pills, sedatives or tranquilisers.

Although Hound is also definitely getting older – 90 minutes on the beach has been enough to knacker her out, but I’m just so pleased that we’re finally at the stage where the fireworks don’t seem to bother her. It’s taken long enough to get here, so let’s hope it lasts a while now.

Devious Bitch

I meant to write about this a while ago, and completely forgot. (Well, I think I did – I don’t remember writing about it, so *shrug*) But anyway, the other week, Hound finally confirmed my suspicions that she’s a devious cow. Let me explain…

At home, Psycho Cat has his food in one particular room, which Hound is kept out of by means of a stairgate. (like people have to prevent children from going up stairs) When she was younger, she used to jump the stairgate, but since we’ve moved to Norfolk she doesn’t even attempt that any more.

If for any reason the stairgate is left open and the cat’s food is down, Hound will go in and scoff as much of it as possible. At that point, because of Hound’s megaoesophagus, she’ll then spend the next 30 – 60 mins puking it back up and re-eating it. This will continue until either a) it stops of its own accord or b) she pukes it up, one of us gets her into her cage, and then clears up the (now warm, and eaten several times puke.

Herself always says that this thieving of Psycho Cat’s food is just because she’s a dog, and thus a scavenger at heart who can’t resist stealing food. Which is fair – but when we were in Bracknell, I often wondered why Hound wouldn’t jump the stairgate to steal the food when we weren’t in the house.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I came home and Hound was fast asleep. I went in to the kitchen, and could suddenly hear her scoffing away in the room with the cat’s food in. Hound had gone in there – the stairgate was open – and hoovered up the entire of the cat’s tuna.

But she’s shown her hand now. Because I know I didn’t open that stairgate. So the devious cow can resist stealing the food while we’re out, because she knows she won’t be able to go and puke in the garden. Therefore, she also knows that stealing the food will make her puke it up. She understands cause and effect – she knows that if she scoffs that food, she’ll be ill, so she waits until someone is around to feel sorry for her before she does it.

And in my book, that makes her a devious conniving bitch. And no longer will she have my sympathy when she’s stolen the cat’s food, and is now looking all mournful and “I couldn’t help it, it was just there” while she’s puking it all over the back garden.

Alien Dog

I don’t quite know what’s happened with Hound today. We’ve got the men in digging a poxy big trench down the front drive for the replacement water supply pipe. The mini-digger is fairly noisy, and of course it means we’ve got people at the front and side of the house.

Normally, Hound will bark if anyone even sets foot on the driveway, yet with all this going on, she’s actually laying at my feet, ignoring everything. It’s most bizarre, and I think it’s quite possible that aliens have come down, abducted Hound, and left us with a milder copy.