Thursday, January 6, 2011

Chooks and Cubbies!

Two very Australian things!
Chook Yards and Cubby Houses and my Fab 5 are busy building both!

Between the house and the paddock we have a strip of boobyalla trees (I have no idea how to spell it,its pronounced boo-bee-al-la,and it makes my children laugh).
These are a scrubby,low lying tree , perfect for cubby building.

Little One has taken over Twin 2's cubby (as she has moved into the tunnel, a more salubrious address I presume)!


You climb up here , Mummy



Miss Little has salvaged an old (non-working) CD player from the tip, half an esky as a seat, a very dodgy padded coat hanger (to hang her coat on) and several other treasures.

Pleased as Punch!



She is extremely proud of her efforts! (As am I)

Teamwork 
The Twins are working on their new home situated in the tunnel. Husband found this dumped in a paddock and brought it home on the front end loader when Son&Heir was a baby, he just knew it would come in handy one day.

Twin 2 is digging a pond and was quite cross when I said that she could not line it with silage plastic to make it permanent. When I pointed out the baby could drown in it and it would be a breeding home for mozzies she grudgingly agreed to just fill it as required.(Our farm is so sandy it will drain away in no time).
They are busy shoveling the excess dirt into the packing tray they dragged from the tip. It was explained to me that it would be a sun deck and by filling it with dirt the snakes could not sleep in there.
Lovely!
Sustenance for the workers

Son&Heir has several loves (including an unrequited one for a blonde haired madam in his class, but I digress)!
Jacob and his harem
Sheep, Football and Cricket are pretty high on the list...... but poultry and building are at the top.
His grandfather gave him six brown hens in the middle of last year and they are good layers.
That is, except for one.
Possessed Poultry
She sits and she pecks - Hard!

New Additions
Son&Heir has raised several day olds in the past, hatched them at school in the Ag Science incubator and then reared them in warming box he built and set up in his bedroom. I let him do this on the proviso he changed the paper twice daily and kept his window open. A little smelly, but not too bad.
One weekend away Husband noticed a small add on a notice board about day old british breed chickens for sale.
''I will just take him for a look" says he, "No harm in that''.
Two hours later, slightly sheepish husband and ecstatic son clutching a small brown box.
But that is another story....
Purchasing day olds you are never sure what you will get! As Son puts it ''Cocks or No Cocks'' Charming!
Therefore all the roosters have to be separated as soon as possible or they fight , to the death, as we once sadly found out.

So Son has built a chook house with the help of Husband with a score of little annexes around it. These  contain sitting hens on eggs and several roosters which get rotated with his hens,''Just to keep thing fair'' declares Son.

With all the sex and violence around here, who needs video games?


The spoils

5 comments:

  1. I knew your blog was going to be good, but this is GREAT! You're a lot of fun to read. I think I was able to translate most of it from AUS to USA, but what's an 'esky'? For a moment I thought she'd bought a seat from etsy, but no, looks like she's much more enterprising than that!

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  2. Thanks Sarvi, Claire was right this is fun!
    An esky is a brand of insulated cool box , and the name just transferred to all the other brands.
    They come in all different sizes and are usually found at the cricket full of ice and beer.

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  3. Sarvi's right Nicole! Fab!!!! :)

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  4. This is such fun! I love seeing your children out getting messy in their o+s gear - you are such a good mum...
    And the australia-talk brings back lots of good memories: good to be reminded of eskies (they don't exist in the UK either).

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  5. Thankyou Catherine! Thats very sweet of you.
    I didn't realize that you were an ex-pat!

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