A big fat update.

Ok then its time for a big fat update. Since it was last November when I posted theres been a fair bit going on....ish.

Christmas was the usual mix of pressure to spend money on gifts for relatives from whom you never here from the rest of the year. Then there was the running around to various other relations over Christmas and Boxing day including the Inlaws. Still we came through unscathed and thank god its over for the best part of another year perhaps buggering off for the next one is a good idea! LOL

The hunt for work was on and took far too long to get something. Best part of 3 months to get in on a refurbishment project at a local Mental Health Hospital which can be, lets say, interesting at times with the patients/inmates/clients (or whatever the bloody PC word is this week) coming in and out of what is a building site and us trying to convince them there is a new entrance around the corner before they explode into violence!
Thankfully I have my Nursing experience to fall back on so it doesnt bother me much but the other guys onsite havnt a clue and look terrified most of the time!! Still just goes to show how much ignorance there still is out there in society about such issues. Many still are of the ilk "its not happening to me so I will bury my head in the sand." Its a shame as im sure if there was a bit more education in schools about such things the world just may be a bit of a better place.

I had to put wifeys car through the dreaded MOT. Now I was actually hoping the horrible little pile of crap would fail, its a Hyundai Atoz of which I am not a fan, but no the bloody thing passed with only a CV boot needing replacing! So looks like Im stuck looking at an old T reg battered and dented Hyundai parked on my driveway covered in DOZENS AND DOZENS OF FLOWER STICKERS!!!!! Still she loves it for some reason and a car is a VERY personal choice eh!

My crimbo present this year was an incubator for hatching poultry eggs. Now this is by far the best gift I have ever received!! So far I have hatched 6 Serama (smallest chicken in the world) and 10 Light Sussex chicks. Most have been sold with me just keeping a couple to grow on. These are absolutely hilarious things when they hatch and its an amazing process as well. Take the egg you would quite happily eat pop it in an incubator for 3 weeks and hay presto little fluffy chicks! My plan is to keep hatching over the spring and early summer and as I sell the chicks the cash goes into another pot that pays for the feed etc for my other big chickens! My constant flock at the moment stands at 3 Jubilee Orpingtons, 1 Marsh Daisy, 2 red ones (got given them so havnt a clue), 1 white one (same again), 2 Light Sussex, 1 Aruacana and 2 Ducklings!!!!!!!

Now you would think with that lot we would never have to buy an egg but NOOOOOOOO over winter all stopped laying (some before they started) and only this week have they started to give us eggs again!

So in the incy at the moment there are 12 Light sussex, 2 duck and 16 Serama eggs. These are a favour for a friend to check his fertility rates as he has introduced new cockerals to his hens and we get to keep what hatches!! Good deal or what!

We had some bad news just before Christmas that my wifes Step mum had had a major stroke and it wasnt looking very hopefull for her. So we hopped onto the first flight out to Spain but got bloody diverted to Valncia instead of landing at Alicante so had to grab the hire car from there (luckily the hire car company were great and the lady receptionist bent over backwards to help us). So we then had a 4 hour drive south to the hospital to see her. That made us up to 22 hours travelling just to get there..very long day! She had amazed everyone by surviving at all as she had been in intensive care for a couple of days. She was released from hospital a couple of weeks later but we have just had the updated checks and its not good news. She has until this coming Christmas if shes lucky which is so tragic at the age of 64. Now she has been planning her 65th birthday party for over a year now and thats this coming June so everyone, and I mean everyone, is going out there for that so she will have the most fantastic day surrounded by her friends and family which is an excellent thing. I havnt a clue how we are going to afford it yet but we will find a way because we are not missing that.

My oldest daughter has started her guitar lessons as a well doen on her school marks. She has started her GCSE courses a year early and is doing well so had to be rewarded.
My Son has started his driving lessons!!!!!!!!!! How the hell did that happen?? He cant be old enough yet surely LOL At 37 it seems strange how old the kids are already but I am glad I had them when I was younger because wifey and I have so many plans on what we want to do starting in a couple of years.

Our biggest realisable dream is renting somewhere that comes with land we can use as a smallholding. We only want to grow the veg on the allotment scale we do now but would love to raise our own meat ie pigs, sheep and goats as well as meat chickens etc. But where to rent? We have decided on either Derbyshire or over in Norfolk in the Cromer/Sheringham regions. Now the long search has to begin to find something suitable.

Well thats it for now and I will pop back in again when I have something of interest to write ;)