Settling in - 2016/2017

When the moving into the new extensions was successfully done, it was time to tend to the garden which had not only been a bit battered and neglected, but had also changed shape.

The first move was to establish a new garden bed alongside the new bedroom wall.

Next, I decided I'd like to add some hens to my menagerie, so I went and organized a little flat pack hen house. Transporting and unloading was a lot easier in bits rather than in a single pack.


It didn't look much to begin with, but an afternoon's labour resulted in this rather stately accommodation for my chickens to come.

The first four chickens were a mixed bunch and quite colourful. Unfortunately, two of them turned out to be roosters.

I didn't mind them really, but as they grew big, boisterous and bothersome, pushing the two hens away from the feed - not to mention raping them -, I decided it was time they had to go.

The white hen, Janet, had laid many eggs and eventually started to sit on some of them and consequently hatched two cute little chickens.  








Sadly, these too, grew into roosters. They had to go as well.

Instead, I acquired two lovely brown hens.

At last I had the four hens I'd wanted to start with.

Gradually, they all began to lay eggs for me, all different colours. My little lemon tree that lived in a pot and was moved in and out daily for safe keeping produced quite a little crop of lemons. The first lemon was quite a celebration.

There was now a timber walk way all the way to the shed and to the back gate.

The hen house is flanked by camellias.....one day, they will be nice and tall and bushy and full of blossoms.

The two raised vegie beds were removed and a new, bigger enclosure built.

On the southern side of the house, I set up another new garden bed in front of the water tank and planted some native shrubs in it. The idea is to eventually hide the tank a bit.

Not every member of the family settled in with the same speed. When the bathroom was first opened up, Mitzi and Lucky immediately started to run around the block. They thought this was great fun.
Cameo took quite a bit longer to get used to this route and Teepee was absolutely terrified for many weeks.