Thank You, Whelan's of Limerick.

Sussing out the new toy. Yes. This IS a picture
of a man reading the instructions!

We had never heard of Whelan's of Limerick or how good they are until our fortuitous evening visit to the Acorn Photographic Society (Balla-D's camera club) on the evening when I was trying to find out what ailed my old Canon EOS and what I might do about it. A lady club member recommended Whelan's of Limerick and I was away. I have since had some nice long informative chats with the shop experts (John and Brian) there, bought the new camera and found out a lot about how one does close-up and macro work nowadays. I must admit that I have not used it properly yet in anger and no pics have appeared in these pages but bear with me. We are time-rich round here and the little faithful Sony Cybershot I used to fill the gap is a lot easier to always have in the car or a coat pocket so that tends to get used for the Lisacul 365 pictures. A couple are included in this post.

365 shot of a local lane.

Farewell, then, to our friends Dawn and the girls (plus dog Romeo) who sailed away early this morning, calling a halt on their try out of living in Ireland, off to see how they get on back in the Cheltenham area of England from which the family hailed. One of the girls, Kitty, was a student of Liz's and excellent times were had teaching and learning, so Liz will particularly miss that. We hope that the History and English Kitty gained from Liz is useful in her English school onward education. The family were also the source of our black and white cat, Soldier, and of the Billy goat we currently have as a guest from Carolyn of the Mini Horses. Good luck with that, ladies all.

Lily's twin lambs a few days old here.

No major stories in this post, just plenty of bimbling along 'between' things. Lily's lambs are thriving and are currently in their cossetted week 1 of being out of doors if the weather is good during the day but rounded up to their nice warm dry pen in the shed at night and if it starts lashing hail on them as it did on Tuesday. Moving them involves me carrying one under each arm with Lily trotting along behind apparently pleased that "my babies are getting a LIFT!" This way I know they are growing at a good pace - they seem noticeably heavier each day.

The geese have come back into lay.

Hot on Lily's heels is now Polly who is, we think, about a week off her own lambing date but has started to do the sitting away on her own thing and is, I detect, starting to bag up in the udder department. Our friend Charlotte was round this week (college half term) and came to admire Lily's children but also took a punt of a singleton for Polly, twins for Myfanwy. I am the other way round (twins, I think, for Polly) but I am still only going public on easy lambings and healthy lambs. Numbers are less of an issue. Either way we do not anticipate any problems as these are all experienced mums (in Polly's case this will be her 6th season) but you don't always gets that lucky.

One of this year's females will be a 'keeper' or 'replacement' to keep the flock going. We already have a rolling group - an 8 year old (or so), a 5 year old and a 3 year old (Myfanwy). The plan is to keep one of this year's who will be with the flock through this winter but will not be let with the ram (she'll be too small) this autumn. That way (our advice goes) she can watch the grown-ups go through the process and learn her mothering skills by watching, hearing, smelling, seeing and being there so that, when her turn comes in Spring 2018 it will be less traumatic for her. That's the theory, anyway.

Mark One Guinea Fowl Deterrent (wires)

With Lily and the lambs indoors at night, an unforeseen problem arose to do with some of the poultry's habit of roosting up in the rafters and among the strip-lights in the shed. Not to put too fine a point on it, they were pooping on my sheep! I decided to borrow an anti-pigeon-roosting idea from my warehousing days and stretched wires across a few inches above the roosts so that the birds could not settle comfortably on the timbers and would (I thought) go elsewhere. I have no problems with them roosting in the rafters or horizontal beams or even the other light where they'd not be directly above the sheep-pen.

Well, the best laid plans, as they say. I went out at lock-up to find a determined Guinea Fowl and our #2 rooster 'Captain' up there anyway, one looking very uncomfortable straddling a wire with the cold steel splitting his difference, the other hunkered down tight to the wood somehow ducked under the wires. In version 2 of this structure chunks of old political poster liberated after the Yes Equality campaign last year served as vertical "blades" sticking up from the perches into the roof. I saw a Sussex Ponte 'hin' trying to sashay into the perch from the electric cable on the left but she soon gave up and at lock-up there were no birds up there. A clean night for Lily and the twins, then, with no little gifts falling from heaven.

Frosty trees reflection.

That is about it for this one except for a sympathetic thought to some friends of ours in Kent who have split up and been forced by that to give up the small holding game and sell off all the stock. I know you read this guys, so I don't need to go into any more detail except perhaps to say that this was the holding I visited before Christmas where I met the heavy horses, Wiltshire Horn sheep and Dexter cattle. Sad for both of you. Hope you both find a new happier situation soon. I know from talking to you that you are both a bit devastated and heartbroken.

Biker Boy

Our first 2016 'clocker' goes broody in a completely useless
place. And sitting on NOTHING. No eggs. Nada.

In the last post, in all the excitement about the Lisacul 365 project, I managed to completely forget to note 2 good signs of Spring. The first is that lovely burst of realisation when your eye falls on a 'new' clump of crocus which you obviously planted at some point last year but then promptly forgot. I have two nice ones in the bank beside the driveway. One is nicely backward so may do OK but the other came out into the teeth of the last named storm and it's little retinue of fronts.

Barbara on some hay bales.

Crocus should (and like to) push their flowers up through the warming grass into the Spring sunshine where they can open the top part of their flowers nice and flat and bright. These poor things emerged into a howling gale and lashing rain, so they have sat and sulked, firmly closed, for the last week and I fear are being knocked about so much they may never open properly before they rot off. Our other spring note was our first 'clocker'; one of the Buff Orps went broody in the worst choice of place ever - in the car port. Yes she was well hidden behind the wheel of my pushbike and she was on the remains of a good, dry bale of hay. She was also slotted in between the 2CV and the hay-barn wall but she was, too, exposed on 3 sides to Brer Fox.

Progress on the Sligo house. The pale upper walls in the centre
are 'scratch-coated with a pale clement. 

We think from her subsequent behaviour that she is the one from last year who was fiercely determined to go broody under an elder bush and had to be protected in situ becuase we couldn't persuade her to move or quit. No option to do that this year and anyway she has gone broody on nothing - not one egg, so I am reduced to gathering her up at lock up time and carry her, chuntering angrily to herself, back to the safely of the main coop. When we release her in the morning she makes a beeline back to her little slot and humpily sits down on the empty nest for another day. Idiot bird. I expect when we want her to go broody on some pure Buff Orp eggs she will have lost interest.

The porch - I get to lay some blocks!

Good progress out on the Sligo house rebuild and, for me, 2 new experiences. The exterior is coming on well with 90% of the fancy stone work done and now the upper 'half' of those new walls given their 'scratch coat' (rough plaster) of special pale cement made with crushed granite sand and white cement powder. This looks gorgeous and sets off the darker stonework beautifully. The outer finish coat will be the same pale buff colour and will not need painting. The chimney stack has now burst out through the new roof and is being dressed with a stone capping and that same pale cement covering. The roof is now 99% covered with membrane and battens ready to take the natural slate which was delivered today. The 99% thing is due to the old western chimney still having the original electricty supply lashed to it and needing that removed (by ESB) before we are allowed to take down the stack and finish off that gable.

The way that day worked out found K-Dub minding his poorly young son in the mobile home while Mum shot off to the shops, giving us an enforced, rather long lunch break. I'd finished and was ready to go back to work but was on my own. We were all set up to lay blocks up into the gable of the new porch so the boss suggested I just start on my own. Never laid a block or brick in my life but I've (now) seen quite a few laid and anyway, if I made a complete Horlicks of it, it would have been the work of minutes to tear down and start again. I did OK. When I step through that front door now and look up, I will know that up there, above the 'head' (lintel) stone are 2 courses of 4 inch "solids" that were all my own work! "There's kudos in building porches!" said K-Dub. My work stood and he carried on up when Mum returned to look after the boy.

An old gravestone for the 365 Project

My second treat that day was to be given a lift home the 20 minutes riding pillion on K-Dub's 'serious' motorbike. This, I am told, is a BMW 1150 RT, a cruising bike with saddles like armchairs, built for comfort rather than racing performance. I have not been on any kind of bike since the 70s (I was asked to ride a moped home from the hay fields to the home farm) so all the leaning was a bit of a surprise (a thrill, if you like) but K-Dub was very gentle with this rookie who was hanging on tight round his waist. I survived and was delivered safe home intact.

Dead now, my faithful Canon EOS D1000

Finally, who knew that you could fry the mother board of a Canon EOS digital camera by taking too many long exposures of night sky in succession. I managed to make my lovely, faithful but old camera go sick while photo-ing the Perseid meteors (or, rather, failing to capture any on film). It was suddenly unable to stay turned on and would power down at the first hint of work (auto focus or the need to use the pop-up flash). I parked it and have been using a little 'compact' ever since but with all this 365 photography going on I decided to disinter it, find out what was wrong and whether it could be fixed. Liz was off to the local camera club to do a presentation about 365 to them, so I asked to come along too in support and might as well bring the EOS and see if there were any experts in the club.

To cut a long story short, long exposures can warm up the mother board on "some Canons" and successions of long exposures overheat the board. They only have a design life of about 10 years anyway so my 7/8 year old one is now not economic to repair (it would be €250 touch). This  thought-process and research has now led me to a rather unwanted conclusion and , combined with the imminent need to acquire archery equipment, to making a hard decision and a life-changing move BUT, that is for another post so you will have to hold yourselves in patience till next time. Mean, huh?

(Probably Not) Art

Chutney, Chili-jam and paté awaiting storing away

I have been messing about lately with two new 'art' forms; movies and the well known genre of "Dustbin Lid Enamels". What do you mean you'd not heard of that one? Read on. We have inherited from Diamond, a tiny but very sophisticated camera, a Sony Cybershot 8.1. Although this beast could (almost) fit inside a standard cigarette box I am constantly amazed by the sophistication of these tiny cameras, as compared to the hulking 'standard' sized SLR that I normally carry about, a Canon EOS. As well as a respectable flash, the Sony has all the time delay, zoom and other toys plus, I was amazed to find, a 'movie mode'. Our 'proper' movie camera is currently parked with a flat battery and we cannot find the charger, so I decided to test out the Sony and then to explore uploading my 'films' to the movie sharing website 'youtube' just to see could I successfully link back to this blog, to Facebook, Twitter and so on. So, for the first time ever, I give you links to videos of geese and of our dozen young Buff Orpintons. Don't get too excited. They are 30 seconds long each, or there abouts and of seriously bad quality, but they are a start.

Geese in the morning http://youtu.be/iU_mXzEZNtM Gorgeous George leads the ladies noisily out to the orchard.

Geese in the evening  http://youtu.be/LLJzxj2vyOY The gang race home to their supper.

Buff Orpingtons emerge from the 'bedroom' http://youtu.be/7tUCC-wU7Pw Lots of bleary eyed gazing about and fluffing up of feathers.

The 'artist' concentrating.

For all the camera is an impressive technological achievement, I must say that from a photographer's point of view, the 'movie' function is disappointingly basic and has no adjustments (no zoom, mainly) - you either have movie or no movie. Youtube has a function at upload which allegedly spots that you are shaky of hands and 'fixes' this but I could not see any difference. Our main problem here is that the horribly slow broadband locally means that even these 30 second bits take 5 minutes to upload each so, enjoy these short clips (and comment if you like) but I can't see myself doing many more of them.

The 'Dustbin' thing was just a silly idea I had to use up a bit of long, dark evening and to pretty up my chicken house feed store. I had 6 dustbins of various feed, identified only by felt pen writing as "Layers' Pellets" , "Sheep Crunch" and so on. I decided to paint an appropriate logo-style design onto each. Anne and Simon, who know about paint, suggested that enamels would be the thing for a galvanised bin lid, and I went on line and bought up 7 colours of the tiny tins of modelling paint; a real buzz of nostalgia from the days when we three brothers were crazy into Airfix kits and had dozens of colours between us. In those days it was mainly military and camo colours but I was sure either Humbrol or Revell would do me a usable red, green, ginger (for the pig), gold (for the wheat), and a flesh-pink for the egg shells.

Revell in fact do a whole range of the tiny 14 ml tins called "Email Colour" at less than €2 per colour (about £1.50). I found some silly designs for pig and dog from the internet. The dog looks a bit like a Westie and the pig is perky enough for anyone. Hours of harmless fun. We are not sure if we'd call them 'art' but they made the pair of us smile and they do whenever I go into the feed store.

I have a date now for the sheep, the 13th of Dec (or any time after that, says Mayo-Liz). This gives our 2 adult ewes enough time to 'dry off' (finish their lactations)  having been separated gently from this year's lambs, to come back onto heat and to be served by the tup (a fine Hampshire Down purebred chap). Then, also, to wait the 17 days in which they might come back on heat if the tup did not do his job properly the first time round. He would spot this, being a very concerned and loving kind of bloke, and give it another go. If they do not 'return to service' then they are almost certainly pregnant. Fingers crossed.

Thawed haggis, neeps and tatties 'ready meal' served on this
occasion with steamed black (Tuscan) kale. Times is hard.

Today saw us on a Christmas shopping trip to Galway, our nearest city, an hour and a half away by car. I'd never been into the city, though I'd been round it and past it on trips to Kinvarra or Connemara but I'm not a great lover of cities and the teeming shopping throngs, so I'd not missed it. Today though we needed to visit Marks and Sparks and TK Maxx plus to browse around various other shops to find suitable presents for folk. Galway, you will not be surprised to know, is like any other city in terms of traffic jams, rammed multi-storey car-parks, ring roads with multiple roundabouts, shopping malls and business parks, just in an area smaller than most cities. In our case, today, we also had a teachers' strike, so there were a million young teenagers strolling about and 'hanging' by the milk-shake outlets, the mobile phone shops and sub-culture magazine/video shops. We survived, though, getting in and parked eventually, then making forays from car-park to shops, returning to offload goodies into the car in between forays. We made sure to be all done by 3 pm so that we could race home (ha! In that traffic?) to rescue the geese in daylight before Brer Fox might come a-calling. Not a bad day and plenty of list items ticked off, but painful enough on the traffic, parking and crowds, that we'll not be rushing back any time soon. Certainly not to use Marks and Sparks's generous €9 food-hall voucher which can only be spent between the 19th and the 23rd of Dec. That truly would be one of the 7 circles of Hell.