Well, I like to think that I can come up with plausible reasons for my actions – but I have to confess that even I pushed the boundaries recently. I’ve written previously about our smallholding and our various animals and go green initiatives, and we’ve been pressing on with growing our own veg. My hubby has a bit of a weakness for old tractors and farm tools, and I love my chickens – and I’ve got quite a few!! We keep extending our chicken run and I saved up and treated them to a chicken palace from a great place near us called Flytes of Fancy so in my mind that meant that I had room for more chickens. I had seen an article about a Charity Goose Auction held twice yearly at the Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton and so with a determined air, I set off with all the family in tow.
Well, I was expecting a few pens of chickens for sale, but it’s a massive affair with over 400 lots of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and even peacocks. My hubby was happy as they also had a cider tent and a hog roast on the go, with lots of things for the kids to get interested in as well – so a bit of a day out for the whole family. I set about the serious stuff of watching the poultry auction and unfortunately for hubby, the bidding bug bit and I was off! By the end of the auction, we were proud (me), and bemused (him), owners of the following:
5 Aracuna blue-egg laying chickens
A bantam and three tiny chicks
4 point of lay bantams
2 frizzies – they look like exploding chickens!
3 Marsh Daisy chickens
2 Lemon Fantail ornamental chickens
3 runner ducks (OK so I promised I wouldn’t get ducks but they were only £8 and I couldn’t leave them there…)
As I was bidding, hubby was getting ever more anxious and I, desperate to justify getting more chickens, heard myself saying “but they’ll make great material for my blog” – the best excuse I’ve ever come up with for unrestrained purchasing!!
Hughie, Dewie and Louie
My boys were really excited by all this activity, so once we had packed them into crates and set off for the car, my hubby took the opportunity to point out that we’d got too many chickens and what on earth was I doing buying “bloody ducks”. I ignored him and later that night, as I introduced the ducks to our geese, I was a bit concerned that he might start a campaign to get rid of the ducks. However, I needn’t have worried as the ducks launched a charm offensive of their own, and the very next evening I found him laughing his head off as the ducks all stood neatly in line for him to spray them with the hose – one converted husband!
3 Responses
Just think what good blog material 5,000 dairy cows would make?
And, trust me, your husband (and close friends) thinking you are “quackers” is not a recent development.
Who said weblogs are dead? Sites like yours are the reason why people still check blogs!!
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