My Christmas

As always it's been a while since my last post and of course there is too much to say all at once without running in to a huge essay, so I'll try and keep it short and sweet!

I spent most of the run up to Christmas (and over Christmas, much to Mr J's disgust) wearing these nice wellies, pink legwarmers and about 7 layers of clothing to stave off the cold.

We * were sawing

wire cutting

hammering

and painting

*please note the vast majority of the hard work was done by my Dad because he does not share his fancy power tools nicely and hardly lets me have a go. Plus he's a darn sight better at that kind of stuff. The tasteful colour scheme is all my own doing and Dad is thoroughly disgusted by it. Which must mean it's awesome, of course! My Mom also did a sterling job entertaining my poor neglected children.

All so 4 days after Christmas I could drive 40 miles to pick up some scruffy, slightly bald little hens that look like this......

Lady Gaga (not the real one, she doesn't like mealworms)

Meryl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and 10 more besides. I'm giving over my garden, time and weekend lie-ins to give them a chance at life and freedom outside of a battery cage, something sadly thousands of hens like them will never get to see. To give them a name, a little bit of love, a comfy bed and chance to die peacefully and naturally (a part I fear I won't cope with very well!). It's been a very steep learning curve so far and I hope I can do them proud as their new guardian.

My hens were just a small number of the 2200 re-homed by the Coventry branch of the British Hen Welfare Trust just before the change in the law regarding battery cages. Sadly the change in law meant that all the current hens living in those cages had to go to slaughter unless homes could be found for them, and all around the country people have been stepping up in droves and giving some of these girls a home. I'm proud to have been a little part of it. More information on their work can be found on their website here.

I will show you the rest of my new troupe later on, time is ticking on and I'm still having a bit of trouble with those early starts!

Happy New Year to you all. As you can probably tell I've had to give blog reading and project stalking a bit of a miss lately. I hope to catch up on everyone's posts soon.