NOTA'S Sleep Thread

[none of the above]

I need names... names for two hens.

Sage and Onion.

My suggestion of Korma and Tikka was met with quite unladylike language!

I want nice names...

You like a curry though.

Yes, but not running about in the garden.

That's if I get any, I'll be living down by the sea and retired before I get them at this rate.

[Joyofsox]

That's if I get any, I'll be living down by the sea and retired before I get them at this rate.

Get on with it then.

http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk/

[none of the above]

That's a good idea, they only want £2.50 a bird and not too far to collect as well. I'll suggest this but all this is a birthday present and I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting.

I know it's hens but apart from that it's a mystery... blokes, they're always up to no good.

[none of the above]

Forgot it's all full of grumps up there...


So, the Baron has put in an appearance and I am now the proud owner of a snazzy proper Panama hat... extra cooooooooool.
Also a bit of material which I'm not sure what to do with tbh but it looks nice, like a little blanket.


And some smuggled seeds of a Criollo tree... much as I can get just about anything to grow (heh ) I doubt a cacao tree is going to be too impressed with the climate here. I will have to have a think about those.
Maybe there was no need to smuggle, maybe someone is just making a big fuss trying to get some attention for apparently being heroic and risking a life spent in a South American prison for crimes against chocolate.



Ahh, a spirited soul... that's a good thing.


Now... time to go.

[none of the above]

Meh, I've had to forage in the cupboards for supper as an error in shopping delivery means my cupboards are almost empty until some time between 2pm & 3pm tomorrow when a nice old chap (it's always chaps) turns up with copious bags of provisions.
I say copious as they seem incapable of putting more than two things in a carrier bag so one is left in the hallway after a delivery surrounded by about a hundred bags when left to my own devices that would be four bags of well packed goodies. Saving the environment my arse...


Chicken news... still no nearer any names. Maybe I need to see them first. There's a lot of deviousness going on so I suspect it's best to wait.


A bit of amusement doing the rounds atm... yet another review on Amazon, this is hair removal woes. Oh the mirth, oh the pain... but still a 5* rating. Really, there's some funny people on there.
Why more chaps are feeling the need to slap this around their nads & wherever I don't know (HFL will know) but it appears to be popular... it looks a bit strange to me but if blokes want to faff about doing that then good luck to 'em. I can think of better things they could be doing...

Ahh, the northern flouncemeister... I bet he does all that odd poncey male groomy stuff, I'll have to phone up & ask.

[none of the above]

Look, a pic of some cute chicks... standing in their water before I got my anti poo cover over it.






Geezers, don't you just love their lack of planning.

So, two (surprisingly early) birthday pressies as of Friday evening. Of course someone in their haste to get the goods forgot I would need some kit to look after 'em so I've had to do what I can with what I have for tonight.
Tomorrow I will convert the under stairs cupboard into baby chick area and get some more odds & ends for them. It'll be cosy enough by the time I'm finished, in fact I could probably fit around five hundred chicks in there if anyone's got some spare.

It won't hurt to have some warm in there as that's where the damp was when I moved in, though it was fixed all this sodding wet weather makes me wonder if it'll come back.


Last year's Castle NOTA birthday animal is none too impressed with the ones for this year... she's sat and given the eye to the box that's in her snug space by the woodburner. As she looks like an Andrex puppy even baby chicks will be none too scared by that.


Heh, it'll be months before I'm getting any eggs out of these two little birds... I'll put my pasta machine back away again for a while.
I expect the Q contingent to be round tomorrow morning to have a look... the amateur offers for "chick sexing" he's been dishing out at random are unnecessary as they are both girls.



Hmmm, need names still...

[none of the above]

So, day two of chick ownership and the two tearaways are now bedded down in a large plastic box (ex Nissan car parts I believe) in the newly carpeted understairs cupboard and have nice deep litter of woodshavings with proper feeder/drinker facilities.
A couple of people helped out here, a chum that works at a certain shop that sells carpets... the right carpets possibly... and another mate that has so many reptiles in their house that if one wanted anything translated from English to reptilian/alien then this is the place to be. Also the place to be if you want to borrow one of those hot lamp thingies.
As the little feathered chirpers arrived a week or so before my birthday and are now kitted out I can only assume the people that thought "great, I'll get NOTA a bit of low cost chicken related paraphernalia" have now to find some other pressies... no worries, I am always happy with new paintbrushes.


I have had a whole lot of suggestions for names from the busier parts of the net and also whoever I have chatted with over the last few days. A lot of football related names have been popular, also daft "Chick van Dyke" type puns...
All done after some intense debate & I've settled on Cojiro and Billina, one is yellowy and one is a bluish/grey... naturally I can't be having chickens with normal names.


Meh it's like November outside, the wind is blowing a tune on the bath overflow pipe... and the new garden fencing is having it's first test. It meant as well as having the fire on for some cheerful cosiness it was a chilli dinner sort of evening. I nearly felt the need to get the Christmas decorations out...

Now I feel the need to snuggle under some duvet.

[none of the above]

Chicks get mucky bottoms... and they need cleaning too. Not in the way that is probably popular on this particular site but just in an animal hygiene sort of way.
Cojiro had to be unceremoniously nabbed and attacked with a wet tissue... such is the exciting life of a three day old chicken. I wonder if she'll ever forgive me.


Apart from that... some rhubarb recipe experimentation, a new article in the "real discovery/invention" series (which has been a bit quiet in the last month or so) this one is the real invention of loo roll and if I do say so myself has caused a fair amount of mirth on the funny parts of the web... a bit of chat, study & art workings... a bit of this & that and that's the weekend sorted.


Ahh, I see a gig looming on the old diary... *makes note*


Have a cunning plan or two to end this soggy drought... watch & learn.

[none of the above]

This turfing stuff is more difficult than I thought... maybe some of that green pretend grass like one sees on the market under bowls of fruit & veg is the way forward.


So, not a lot of excitement today... my old boss turning up was a bit of amusement an not a little interesting in career terms. It's the old boys (& girls) network in action this business... nothing changes.


More importantly it was the first day baby chicks were left while I went to work for a few hours. Goodness me it was chaos in there when I got home, what were they doing all morning. Anyway as there are a million large cardboard boxes at work I managed to cram half a one (they're big) in the car to make as their final indoor accommodation and also the biggest I can fit under the stairs. They were unceremoniously turfed out into a little box whilst I constructed chicken palace #3 which is much more spacious and also I can get their feed & water facilities out of the way of the bedding which they take great delight in digging into massive piles. F*** me they are busy for such tiny balls of fluff. Not being an expert on chicken moods I'll take it they are happy in their work...

I'll have my little niece staying over on Thursday night and she doesn't know I have them... I can imagine my bro's face when she gets home wanting some of her own... he has enough trouble when I send her home covered in paint & mud and clutching a scale model of moon-base alpha or whatever which apparently offends his sanitized idea of youngsters.

Not that I do it deliberately of course... it just happens that way...


The moral is, never disagree with older sisters.

[none of the above]

There's a bit of a chicken theme going on here...


Well, actually I've just wandered over from G+ where amongst all the nutters I've managed to accumulate on there (more peeps for meets & outings ) I also learn it's International Chicken Appreciation Month now. Excellent... I shall inform the two fluffy chicks of naughtiness in the morning.

Aww, they were chirping when I went to work this morning... perhaps they are miffed at having to listen to five hours of Radio 4 (radio is on for DogOfNOTA, she likes that or BBC Crappyhampton). They also do a bit of cheeping when it's sleep time. The first time I found 'em kipping I thought they were dead, they favour the flat out beak to woodshavings prone position for a proper doze. It's the right temp in there so it must be a youngster thing.


I wonder if chickens snore.




I know I don't. And anyone that says different is fibbing...

[none of the above]

The clouds are crying again... really if anything is going to test a newish fence even with concrete posts it's boggy ground and high winds. It's looking a little off centre out there, there's no point in doing anything as the ground is disturbed enough already. F****** crappy spring... bollox to the drought I want some dry & sunny now. My veg plants are growing slower than glaciers (except the new potatoes and mint) and I'm not getting the benefit from my profusion of solar novelty garden light tat ornaments as they've not seen any sun.

Have I not mentioned the chickens...

I have however found that the cupboard where the two cheeping fluffballs live at a comfy 95° is ideal as a propagator... usually seeds start life on top of the fishtank which is a reasonable 74° but this is much quicker... my butternut squash were up in no time. Mind I have to whip 'em out to a windowsill then or there's a whole lot of straggly stalks going on.


Heh, have filled the net with amusement... now time to wander off.

[none of the above]

Ahh, a brill day... all the NOTA clan together being as mad as can be and scoffing lots of food. As dad had said on the invite I tarted up properly... wore my snazziest topper, velvet & lace jacket over a long green dress and a pair of my Victorian styleee boots (which as they have a bit of heel prompted dad to say he was shrinking in his old age, but he had a bigger hat than me to make up for it ).
A sizeable chunk of a restaurant was set aside to keep us from frightening the normal people and all was good.

Mum & step-dad came too and there was a fair amount of rude jokes that gave mum the opportunity to give a hard stare to us all... some things never change. One of my step-bro's has got himself a shop I hear so I might have to pop down to Ponceyshire to have a look.

The Baron von Wonka had come with me to look at some turf (I know how to live it up) while I was out yesterday but I didn't have the right measurements with me, so today on the way back I just had time to pop in the place and the same bloke was again waffling on about no doubt interesting grassy facts when I was just interested in positioning myself downwind while wearing my best interested but slightly smirky face... Baron was about to disown the nutter with sniffer-dog senses.


So, although in about an hour or so it is the official and super moment when I arrived in this world forty two years ago I have decided I'll be having a second birthday (like the Queen) on a different day of my choosing... in peace & quiet and on a need to know basis. It's only right and in keeping with the eccentric family tradition (mine that is not the Queen's). Karma is restored and the world carries on in a much more respectable fashion... how ace is that.

[none of the above]

Meh, not being at work during the bank hols doesn't exempt one from having to bring in cakes for a birthday. Surely it should be the other way around (I say that every year ). Anyway, I made some flapjacks, macaroons, choccy chip cookies and some mini muffins. All gone within fifteen mins... not all my effort I might add.

I got a card from my colleagues... it's nice but a bit rude as well as late. I wouldn't be able to show it to my mum.

Anyway, today we had a crisis... crisis with a massive capital C that is. Major delays and bodge ups result in a job so urgent that couriers just aren't quick enough and some happy bod has (been) volunteered to traipse around the world with some spanky new Beemer parts in tow. A car people won't see for a couple of years but just remember the hassle that went into that rust bucket in the beginning.


Ahh, speaking of work... I see mention here of those "poor" bods that had to work in shops & that over the B/Hols. Working what... mostly to sell cheapshit imports that poop on the good manufacturing workers that have no sodding jobs now. Ahh, once everyone cottons on to the fact one can have that shiny low priced tat sent straight to your home then they'll be wishing for the days when they had to work weekends to sell it... just like we used to work 24/7 to produce goods in this country and could make a living from it.
My heart bleeds, it really does...


Baby chickens are fine, just thought I'd bung a mention in...

[none of the above]

As this is the internet I will waffle on about it for a bit until my bathwater makes my toes wrinkly.

Ahh so I give a little mention to the mighty astro forum... a site one can't even mention fully by name on bot laden boards like this as we like to have peace and not have our words poked at by strangers and wingnuts. A place where you can't even sign up unless there's a proven viewable track record of amusing/creative/alien related stuff and someone actually knows you are a real person. It's an experiment that worked, a whole different world and full of fun chortles...


So, most lurk on other sites naturally... one has to have a bit of variety and be amazed.
Also things change from experiences... I for instance I have learned that the "proven track record" rule needs to be modified to be longer or more robust in some way. Originally the time was around a year but that is not nearly long enough in my view now and I really don't want covert nutjobs amongst people I've been on-line with for so long.
Heh, a lively debate is always raging about the qualifications though.


I've found one similar sort of place but that relies on the general community there being so laid back that even trolls fall asleep before causing lasting hassle.



Happy chicken news... they have proper wing feathers and are doing trial flights. A bit worrying as if they fly out of chicken palace #3 then they'll have only the rest of the contents of the under-stairs cupboard for company and a small oil filled radiator to keep warm. I'll have to get a bit of net for the top until I re-arrange things.
They have been on Skype with a chum of mine on a gardening forum and their baby chicks in Australia which is funny... chick cam.

[Joyofsox]

chicken............. a small oil filled radiator to keep warm.

I have it on good authority they OK up to about 180c.
Provided you baste them properly.