I am in the process of finishing off a treadle which is going down to London. I had to reveneer the top because the lady who is buying it is very fussy. She wants it as the centrepiece in her new sewing room, so it is understandable, but perfect treadles just don't exist. All of them need some attention and she didn't want any bits of veneer missing, so it has been a long haul.
Hopefully the finished product will be suitable for her. I have to rewax the foldover top, finish oiling the iron legs and wire brush a few patches of rust, respray the flap hinges, machine hinges and catches for the drawer assemblies, then put it all back together. Then I have to take pictures and send them to her. I will be glad to get this one out of the way.
Then I can fiddle about with the treadle plate on Sarah's little cabinet so that can go down to Devon. My Singer industrial treadle is also going to Devon to be used for quilting. Sarah has a lot more room than I do now, and all the treadles will look nice in her sewing space, especially when she has workshops. It will be nice to have more space in the dining room so I can use the other 3 treadles in there which are rather cramped at the moment.
I bought two new hand cranks at Saddington car boot on Sunday, a Jones Popular VS electric in silver grey, with it's cute little carry case and a Jones no 53A hand crank also a VS, this also had a case, but it needs some work. The handle is missing and thee are two holes in the sides and a lot of paint to remove. The machine itself is in good condition. I intend to have a play with these next week.
Friday, 15 July 2011
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Fleece
Sue Bailey, the lady in the next village who keeps Leicester Longwool sheep rang me 2 weeks ago to say her sheep were being sheared and did I want any of the fleece. Needless to say I said yes as the shearling fleece I got 18 months ago from her Lily was beautiful. It was black and cream, but where the sun had bleached the darker fleece it had faded to a gingery shade. This gives a nice accent every now and then when spinning and the wool was very soft.
Shearling fleeces are the first shearing ever of that particular animal, so the softest, including the lamb's wool, the thickest, weighing in the case of L. Longwools about 15 lbs, the next shearing will probably weigh half of that.
Sue gave me a list of what she would have, and I chose about 5 fleeces including a cream shearling L. Longwool, Duke's (the ram) fleece which has a lot of pale grey in it, a Hebridean cross which was cream and a couple of others. She said she would get them weighed and see what the going price was per lb.
She rang me again yesterday to say the ones I wanted weighed about 35 lbs. she was actually at the farm as she doesn't work on Mondays so we arranged to go over and see the lambs and the shorn fleeces.
When we got there, she has a new dog, a beautiful Rottweiler called Roxy, daft as a brush. We saw the lambs, already quite big at 18 weeks old and getting beautiful thick coats with curls. Sue and I had a rake through all the fleeces while Phil and Jeff chatted about farming stuff. I decided to have a couple of extra, dark Hebrideans, almost black nearest the skin with ginger tips again. That cost me an extra £5, Sue had already agreed £30 for the rest. The going rate was £1.20 per lb. but she gave me a discount.
I asked Sue what she was doing with the rest and whether she was taking them to Melton rare breeds fair in the Autumn, but she was undecided. So I can have more fleeces if I want them later on. I will pick them up next week or the week after, when I have the money spare. I might even wash and card some and try selling it on eBay to see how that goes.
Sue also wants to try felting some of her fleece so she will let me know when she has some washed and I will take my beach mats and some old net curtains over and we will try it out. Messy business but fun!
I have 3 cream fleeces to experiment with natural dyes. I have grown Dyer's Chamomile, Woad and Indigo this year. I did have a Weld plant but I'm not sure if that has survived as it didn't look too healthy last time I looked. The Alkanet which used to grow in the garden has all gone, though I imagine if the chickens didn't free range it would soon grow back. Sarah geve me some dried Madder and I have some onion skins.
We had a chat about buying chickens at Melton, after Sarah's experiences with Mycoplasma and Jeff said they got some chickens from Melton and got Mycoplasma. It seems to be in all the poultry auctions, so it's better to go to a reputable breeder of the breed you want and check the adults before you buy young stock.
Sue has just wormed her chickens, and I need to worm ours. I will be buying some of the Marriages layers pellets which are impregnated with Flubenvet. You feed them that for 7 days.
Shearling fleeces are the first shearing ever of that particular animal, so the softest, including the lamb's wool, the thickest, weighing in the case of L. Longwools about 15 lbs, the next shearing will probably weigh half of that.
Sue gave me a list of what she would have, and I chose about 5 fleeces including a cream shearling L. Longwool, Duke's (the ram) fleece which has a lot of pale grey in it, a Hebridean cross which was cream and a couple of others. She said she would get them weighed and see what the going price was per lb.
She rang me again yesterday to say the ones I wanted weighed about 35 lbs. she was actually at the farm as she doesn't work on Mondays so we arranged to go over and see the lambs and the shorn fleeces.
When we got there, she has a new dog, a beautiful Rottweiler called Roxy, daft as a brush. We saw the lambs, already quite big at 18 weeks old and getting beautiful thick coats with curls. Sue and I had a rake through all the fleeces while Phil and Jeff chatted about farming stuff. I decided to have a couple of extra, dark Hebrideans, almost black nearest the skin with ginger tips again. That cost me an extra £5, Sue had already agreed £30 for the rest. The going rate was £1.20 per lb. but she gave me a discount.
I asked Sue what she was doing with the rest and whether she was taking them to Melton rare breeds fair in the Autumn, but she was undecided. So I can have more fleeces if I want them later on. I will pick them up next week or the week after, when I have the money spare. I might even wash and card some and try selling it on eBay to see how that goes.
Sue also wants to try felting some of her fleece so she will let me know when she has some washed and I will take my beach mats and some old net curtains over and we will try it out. Messy business but fun!
I have 3 cream fleeces to experiment with natural dyes. I have grown Dyer's Chamomile, Woad and Indigo this year. I did have a Weld plant but I'm not sure if that has survived as it didn't look too healthy last time I looked. The Alkanet which used to grow in the garden has all gone, though I imagine if the chickens didn't free range it would soon grow back. Sarah geve me some dried Madder and I have some onion skins.
We had a chat about buying chickens at Melton, after Sarah's experiences with Mycoplasma and Jeff said they got some chickens from Melton and got Mycoplasma. It seems to be in all the poultry auctions, so it's better to go to a reputable breeder of the breed you want and check the adults before you buy young stock.
Sue has just wormed her chickens, and I need to worm ours. I will be buying some of the Marriages layers pellets which are impregnated with Flubenvet. You feed them that for 7 days.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Final tally on chicks
We finished up with 10 chicks, 8 Araucanas, 1 Bantam/Araucana cross and 1 Nankin. We lost 4 squashed by Bessie which were 1 Araucana and 3 Nankins. We had 3 eggs left which contained 1 undeveloped and 2 with dead chicks inside. This may have been from a time when both Bessie and Marje decided to leave the eggs in favour of their chicks so they went cold. So we have 90% fertility from the Araucanas and 100% from the Nankins. I already have an order for 3 Araucana hens and hopefully will be able to sell most of them I think we will keep the Nankin and Zinny. I will take pictures tomorrow.
We need to get another shed built for the chicks to go in at 8 weeks when they leave their Mothers. We may be getting a huge rabbit hutch from Dave and Denise down the road as their son has just split up with his girlfriend and she has taken her rabbit and gone back to live with her Mother. She doesn't want the hutch Ian built so it may be going spare. It is a 3 tier so we should be able to adapt it for the chicks.
We need to get another shed built for the chicks to go in at 8 weeks when they leave their Mothers. We may be getting a huge rabbit hutch from Dave and Denise down the road as their son has just split up with his girlfriend and she has taken her rabbit and gone back to live with her Mother. She doesn't want the hutch Ian built so it may be going spare. It is a 3 tier so we should be able to adapt it for the chicks.
Monday, 20 June 2011
More chicks
We now have 6 Araucana chicks altogether. Bessie who managed to squash 4 chicks now has 3 live ones so hopefully she has leant to be a Mum. She is still clumsy and tends to tread on her babies but they quickly learn to get away from Mum's feet. She trod on the youngest tonight, it was only born today and wasn't on it's feet properly yet. We managed to get it from under her feet. It should be running around tomorrow.
It was hatched at a time when Bessie was running around outside gobbling food, and it got a bit cold and limp so we got the hairdryer and blew warm air at the lowest speed on it for a bit. It did the trick as it's feathers dried off and it started moving about more. It's a problem that the nest boxes are higher up and once the older chicks are running about they tend to fall down into the shed and then Bessie doesn't want to get back in the nest. We solved it with the latest by putting her in the big indoor cage. What a tussle getting her into the cage. I had to fight to get her out of the shed. Once she was settled in with her eggs and 3 babies she was fine and settled down on top of them. I gave her a load of wheat and she was obviously very hungry and ate quite a bit, followed by some layers' pellets.
There are 4 eggs left, but one of them rattles so think the chick might have died. We will wait another few days to see if any more hatch. So far we have had 100% fertility from all the eggs, 4 squashed and 1 died in the shell. Pretty good going I think for our first attempt at hatching chicks.
It was a learning curve for both us and the hens. For example, we won't put Nankin eggs under Bessie again, although she didn't have them in the first place, but they kept changing nests and she ended up with them. In future, we would make sure when they are hatching they are under a Bantam.
It was hatched at a time when Bessie was running around outside gobbling food, and it got a bit cold and limp so we got the hairdryer and blew warm air at the lowest speed on it for a bit. It did the trick as it's feathers dried off and it started moving about more. It's a problem that the nest boxes are higher up and once the older chicks are running about they tend to fall down into the shed and then Bessie doesn't want to get back in the nest. We solved it with the latest by putting her in the big indoor cage. What a tussle getting her into the cage. I had to fight to get her out of the shed. Once she was settled in with her eggs and 3 babies she was fine and settled down on top of them. I gave her a load of wheat and she was obviously very hungry and ate quite a bit, followed by some layers' pellets.
There are 4 eggs left, but one of them rattles so think the chick might have died. We will wait another few days to see if any more hatch. So far we have had 100% fertility from all the eggs, 4 squashed and 1 died in the shell. Pretty good going I think for our first attempt at hatching chicks.
It was a learning curve for both us and the hens. For example, we won't put Nankin eggs under Bessie again, although she didn't have them in the first place, but they kept changing nests and she ended up with them. In future, we would make sure when they are hatching they are under a Bantam.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Chickens again
Yet another chicken was poorly. Her rear end was bleeding so separatd her from the others as they kept pecking at her. Couldn#t find anything wrong with her so put her back with the flock overnight. Yesterday morning I checked her again and felt a small lump in her oviduct. I thought it was too small for an egg so gave her an internal exam and found a smashed egg inside. I pulled it out, checking to make sure I didn't leave any small pieces as it was very sharp, and was obviously the cause of the bleeding. I then flushed her out with several syringes of strong tea tree water as the egg was going rotten and had obviousy been in there a few days. It seems to have done the trick, no more bleeding and she is back to her old naughty self. Getting into the fruit gaden and eating the leaves of the raspberries. Then you have to lift her out as she hasn't worked out how to get back out herself.
Another 2 chicks have hatched, both Araucanas and Bessie has finally managed not to squash the latest. We tried to offer it to Marj, but she is out with her baby and didn't want to know so we had to put it back under Bessie as it was getting cold. Finally she has her own baby, hope it's OK tomorrow. We might lose all the other eggs (about 5 left) if she decides to take her baby out and about. Ginger was OK as her babies were both young when the Nankin and 3rd Araucana were given to her.
It's lovely to see the little chicks running round in the chickery with their Mums. We (Phil) had to build a new split run to keep the 2 bantams and chicks in. Marj (Araucana) was attacking Bab's (Bantam) baby, Babs was attacking Ginger's (Bantam) so the answer was to separate them. Tonight is their first night out in the chickery. it wasn't very warm, so I stapled bubble wrap over the mesh doors and gave them plenty of straw.
Another 2 chicks have hatched, both Araucanas and Bessie has finally managed not to squash the latest. We tried to offer it to Marj, but she is out with her baby and didn't want to know so we had to put it back under Bessie as it was getting cold. Finally she has her own baby, hope it's OK tomorrow. We might lose all the other eggs (about 5 left) if she decides to take her baby out and about. Ginger was OK as her babies were both young when the Nankin and 3rd Araucana were given to her.
It's lovely to see the little chicks running round in the chickery with their Mums. We (Phil) had to build a new split run to keep the 2 bantams and chicks in. Marj (Araucana) was attacking Bab's (Bantam) baby, Babs was attacking Ginger's (Bantam) so the answer was to separate them. Tonight is their first night out in the chickery. it wasn't very warm, so I stapled bubble wrap over the mesh doors and gave them plenty of straw.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Chickens/chicks
Another of our ex-batts has been poorly, she had an intestinal prolapse and although it was put back inside, I think the shock killed her as she died last night. The vet said he couldn't have done anything else. Cowslip is now running round with Zinnia over the Rainbow Bridge.
We have another Araucana chick. One of the eggs under Bessie started pipping so we removed it and put it under Marje who hasn't had any chicks yet. So far, so good. No squashed chick. Let's hope it continues. 6 chicks so far.
The new run is nearly done, only some of the roof netting to be attached and top doors made. Hopefully the bantams can go in it for good tomorrow instead of being removed at night.
We have another Araucana chick. One of the eggs under Bessie started pipping so we removed it and put it under Marje who hasn't had any chicks yet. So far, so good. No squashed chick. Let's hope it continues. 6 chicks so far.
The new run is nearly done, only some of the roof netting to be attached and top doors made. Hopefully the bantams can go in it for good tomorrow instead of being removed at night.
Monday, 13 June 2011
New chicks
We have finally got some chicks from the Bantams and Araucanas who have been sitting for the last few weeks. We have 1 Bantam/Araucana cross born on 5/6 (the day Zinnia one of our ex-batts died), 3 Araucanas born on 7/6, 8/6, 10/6, 1 Nankin born on 8/6. We lost 3 Nankin chicks and 1 Araucana squashed by Bessie, so we took the last Nankin egg and put it under Ginger and the last Araucana chick before that too got squashed. Bessie keeps changing nests and was trying to get in the same nest as Ginger with her chicks so we brought Ginger inside in the big cage and the chicks were much happier.
Phil has been building a new run with the hutch as the shed, partitioned, as Babs started attacking Ginger's chicks. Ginger has been out in that this afternoon and the chicks have been out in their yard eating tiny worms and bugs disturbed by Phil. We need to get some more shade netting to put over the roof of the run to protect it from predators.
We still have some Araucana eggs under Bessie and Marje, but no idea if any of them are fertile. We will give them until the end of the week.
Update - Another Araucana chick is pipping. We have removed it from Bessie and put it under Marje to see if she is any better at keeping chicks without squashing them. She is the only one who hasn't hatched any chicks yet.
Phil has been building a new run with the hutch as the shed, partitioned, as Babs started attacking Ginger's chicks. Ginger has been out in that this afternoon and the chicks have been out in their yard eating tiny worms and bugs disturbed by Phil. We need to get some more shade netting to put over the roof of the run to protect it from predators. We still have some Araucana eggs under Bessie and Marje, but no idea if any of them are fertile. We will give them until the end of the week.
Update - Another Araucana chick is pipping. We have removed it from Bessie and put it under Marje to see if she is any better at keeping chicks without squashing them. She is the only one who hasn't hatched any chicks yet.
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