Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[joannefiddler]

Yes - roosters are so comical to watch. My two oldest roosters are the nest warmers and welcomers. They'll get in the nests, get them just right, and wait for a hen to entice into the nest he has prepared. Here's one of them -

This guy will even guard the nest by standing in the box next to her, making sure other hens don't disturb her. Funny guys. I love watching them interact.

Thanks for confirming that I'm not imagining what I'm seeing! Your fellow is quite lovely. I'm thankful to live where roosters are not a problem. Ben, I still believeI see some acreage in your future!

 

[Bens-Hens]

Yes Joanne, we need more space. I just got back from a support race where I ran along with a runner as a pacer for the last 20km of a 100km race. Late afternoon through some spectacular countryside...many roosters were heard before sunset!

I was going to guess 3 chickens in the sand, but my eye's might be playing tricks on me.

Sal has not been through another attempted move yet, might give it a bit longer, going to do our first candle in a couple of days and see how things are travelling.

 

[vehve]

Ben, you'll get your farm eventually. One day I hope that I could move to 100 hectares somewhere, with some woods, fields and the sea.

I had an interesting moment today, our neighbors have some friends visiting, and this is a semi detached house so they're quite close. I had the back door open, and was just about to throw some of that makaronilaatikko into the microwave, when all of a sudden I hear this loud, booming sound. I quickly went outside to see what it was. Imagine my surprise when I see two bagpipers starting to jam out in the neighbors yard. That's not something you see or hear everyday, they sounded quite nice.

I have however come to the conclusion that my list of instruments you don't want your neighbors kid to take up no longer has the violin on top. The bagpipers explained a bit about playing the instrument, apparently there are only two volume levels with a bagpipe. One is not playing, and the other is 120dB.

 

[Latestarter]

Bagpipes are something, are they not? The ancient Scott's used them to scare the enemy when entering into battle. Nowadays it's more ceremonial as you don't WANT to give your position away. I certainly wouldn't want a neighbor who played them! If they were 4-5 miles away, that would be OK!

Just curious, but what would a piece of property like that which you described cost over there? Here in the US it would be prohibitively expensive for most. Especially when you add in the "ocean front" piece. Sounds ideal though, I must say.

Pardon my asking, but where (& when?) did you learn your English? In all the posts I've read, your use of the language has been virtually perfect! Grammar, spelling, punctuation... Impressive!

 

[vehve]

Bagpipes are something, are they not? The ancient Scott's used them to scare the enemy when entering into battle. Nowadays it's more ceremonial as you don't WANT to give your position away. I certainly wouldn't want a neighbor who played them! If they were 4-5 miles away, that would be OK!

Just curious, but what would a piece of property like that which you described cost over there? Here in the US it would be prohibitively expensive for most. Especially when you add in the "ocean front" piece. Sounds ideal though, I must say.

Pardon my asking, but where (& when?) did you learn your English? In all the posts I've read, your use of the language has been virtually perfect! Grammar, spelling, punctuation... Impressive!

Here's a search for property in Uusimaa, South Finland where I live. Most of these are quite far from Helsinki, the capitol, but within 200km. The search shows properties over 5ha (about 12 acres), the euro is around 1,35USD at the moment I believe. I don't think 100ha really is realistic, but that should give you some sort of picture of property prices. Way up north you can pick up property for next to nothing, but I could never live in Lapland, too dark in the winters, and cold too, plus it's so sparsely populated that finding even a small grocery store might mean a hundred kilometer round trip.

I do confess to using spell check, although I think everyone does (They should, nothing takes away gravitas from your point like writing worse than a fifth grader). Not really that many red squiggly lines showing up anyway.

When I was 8 years old, we moved to a new house, and most of my friends where left behind. It was a pretty rainy Summer, and we had a satellite antenna. Couple months of Cartoon Network and i spoke English. Never really studied the language before high school, where I had to take three courses (each six weeks with 6 hours per week) in order to be allowed to do the broader English finals.

*Edit* I also reread most of the longer stuff I post and edit it afterwards.*/Edit*

Most decent TV programming is made in English speaking countries, and I like to read. That means I have a decent vocabulary, and I care about the way I present my opinions. Also, I'm bilingual to begin with, my dad's native language is Swedish while my mom is a native Finnish speaker. Swedish shares many similarities with English, so it's not that hard to learn.

My German however, is not as good, I've studied that since the third grade, but I still can't produce proper sentences, especially in written form. Lately I've been getting some more practice though, since our neighbors family lived in Germany for many years, and the dad is German. Today I explained the building process of my coop to their guests in German, I hope they understood something, I've never discussed construction in German before.

Lastly, if you get to this point of this novel I seem to be writing (Funny thing, in Swedish "Novell" is a short-story), I'd like to say thank you for the compliment, it's always nice to receive recognition.

*Edit* Us Finns used guerilla tactics to scare the Soviets during our war, I think that was more effective than bagpipes =) Nowadays we just put up a hell of a fight in hockey (In case you followed the world championships that ended a week ago).

 

[vehve]

Of course, adding the link to the search might help:

http://tinyurl.com/oajfho5

There you go. The first one looks quite nice.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Ben, you'll get your farm eventually. One day I hope that I could move to 100 hectares somewhere, with some woods, fields and the sea.

I had an interesting moment today, our neighbors have some friends visiting, and this is a semi detached house so they're quite close. I had the back door open, and was just about to throw some of that makaronilaatikko into the microwave, when all of a sudden I hear this loud, booming sound. I quickly went outside to see what it was. Imagine my surprise when I see two bagpipers starting to jam out in the neighbors yard. That's not something you see or hear everyday, they sounded quite nice.

I have however come to the conclusion that my list of instruments you don't want your neighbors kid to take up no longer has the violin on top. The bagpipers explained a bit about playing the instrument, apparently there are only two volume levels with a bagpipe. One is not playing, and the other is 120dB.

SOme days it seems closer than others.

I love the bag pipes, I have asked for them at my funeral. Saying that, they have a time and place. I would be fine with my neighbours playing them in their yard, as long as it's not too early or too late. Unlike the guys we have next door at the moment who liked to have their different music cranked up until 3am.

Bagpipes are something, are they not? The ancient Scott's used them to scare the enemy when entering into battle. Nowadays it's more ceremonial as you don't WANT to give your position away. I certainly wouldn't want a neighbor who played them! If they were 4-5 miles away, that would be OK!

Just curious, but what would a piece of property like that which you described cost over there? Here in the US it would be prohibitively expensive for most. Especially when you add in the "ocean front" piece. Sounds ideal though, I must say.

Pardon my asking, but where (& when?) did you learn your English? In all the posts I've read, your use of the language has been virtually perfect! Grammar, spelling, punctuation... Impressive!

I had wondered the same Latestarter, English as a second language yet it was better constructed than most of my posts, and I pretty much only speak English. A few words from others, but not a great deal.

SO I am up, had my 5 weetbix and a coffee....time to mow the lawn and give the flock something new to scratch through!

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote: I did not see any kind of egg dish?

Scott

 

[vehve]

5 weetabix? Once you stop running you're going to have to buy bigger pants... quite a metabolism you seem to have, or is this just a refuel?

 

[Bens-Hens]

No eggs this morning Scott, maybe tomorrow I might poach some up on toast.

Felix, I have an appetite that matches my activity. 5 weetbix is a normal quick breakfast for me. It took me nearly 2 years to gain 7 kilo's weight lifting 5-6 times a week and eating 4000-5000 cals a day. I seem to process what ever goes in efficiently. I got sick and lost most of that weight in just over 20 days. I gave up the weights and took up running after that!

We try to eat a balanced diet but given my activities (last nights run was about 1200 cals) I have to eat a fair bit to keep the energy up, and the occasional burger or hot chips doesn't seem to hurt.

About to let the flock out and check on Sal. After dark Alicia and I will poke about under Sal with a torch, make sure there is still only 9 eggs under there and see whats cooking in them!