Now my hip is better and I’ve got young Stevo to help with odd jobs for a bit, we’re getting on with the clearing out again.  As I said, we’ve just about filled the skip – more went in today and there’s very little room left now.  Today, Phil came over and cut up more logs with his chain saw for LT to split – there’s still a lot to do but we’re plugging away.

In the meantime, I wanted to get a big, flat cart out that I’d accidentally blocked in the Dutch barn with pallets of tiles.  The only relatively easy way to do it was to dismantle the outdoor cats’ straw shelter and drag it round, moving various other things as we went.  It was quite hard work and we were glad to have Stevo’s help.  I put the straw bales back but I didn’t see the cats when I put their food down today.  They’ll be back tomorrow, I expect.

I also got out my pruning saw and cut down a few saplings that had self-seeded in inconvenient places.  One thing we had to move was a table tennis table that Russell had acquired a few years ago – not sure where he intended to put it but it’s now in the big workshop.  It can’t be used until the logs are cut up and stacked elsewhere, though.

I’d made leek and potato soup and bought chicken pie from the butcher for lunch, to make things easy.  And this evening, we’re finishing the salad and then last night’s curried beef.  It was really good to be able to get stuck in and work hard but I’m quite tired and achy now.  A pleasure to be able to do it though.

The chickens are finally laying again.  They aren’t a commercial breed, a mixture of common or garden bantams and old breeds of bantam, which are very seasonal layers.  I hadn’t had any eggs for well over a month.  But, from the 14 I have left (I thought it was 12 but I can’t count), we’ve had a dozen eggs since last Tuesday.  Before long, I expect we’ll be inundated.