Thursday 19th February 2009 – my first mole

It’s offical! I am a mole catcher of note……….well, I have caught one, a big one and very exciting it was too! The smug satisfaction stuck with me for at least 3 days. It has now worn off despite the fact that the dead mole is ceremoniously hung on the fence by the back gate for all to admire providing a daily reminder of my achievement. There are two problems – the dead mole is starting to smell and it hasn’t to date, been joined by any of it’s friends.

Rather than providing a marker of my mole hunting efficiencies – the said dead mole only serves to fuel suspicion that  I have gone stark raving mad.

I have become completely obsessed with my trapping. Armed with my spade, gloves and traps, I am on a one woman mission to restore my view from its current lunar appearance back to uninterrupted meadow. I have approached my task with a significant amount of planning and preparation. The first rule of war, is, I understand, know your enemy. As such I have spent many a long evening researching everything there is to know about these velvety devils. I am alarmed by the breeding cycle and as such have put down the books to focus on manoeuvres. I eagerly follow runs and have spent far too long squashing old mole hills so that I can monitor their recent movements.

Sadly, all of this for just one mole. I shall not be deterred – the war continues.

Meanwhile, there appears to be trouble in the hen house. Having been convinced that out of my 11 surviving birds, only one was a cockerel, suddenly, it looks like I’ve got at least one more. They may just be butch hens but I am sure I heard a stifled cock a doodle do from one of them. This could explain my lack of eggs – still nothing and the weather is so much milder. Clearly, no amount of mild weather is going to encourage the cocks to lay!

I think more hens are called for.

Friday 6th February 2009 – Snowed in

I am stranded at the top of our hill after a week of snow which at this height is simply refusing to budge. D did attempt the Cresta Run to the bottom a couple of times in an attempt to get me to civilisation and importantly paid work! Only one of the attempts was successful – the other resulted in me being stuck on a train for 3.5 hours going absolutely no where. I then had to be rescued to get me back up the hill – all very exciting but not very productive.

The hens are not impressed by the snow and have retreated to their shed – who can blame them?! I had hoped we might have had our first egg by now but clearly this cold spell has knocked that on the head – for the time being at least. I did give ‘hen towers’, an early Spring clean this morning – hopefully this will encourage some laying once the weather changes. The clean out has meant that the compost bins have benefited from a top up with chicken poo. With the pigs and hens, the compost bins are the clear losers in the race for the kitchen scraps. The compost boosted with some poultry muck should provide me rocket fuel for the garden!

Speaking of which, I am getting behind on garden jobs . I finally managed to find my favourite vegetable growing book only to discover that by now I should have cleared the garden, dug in the muck and have trays of seed potatoes chitting on windowsills. Clearly it would help if I could, one, actually get somewhere to purchase the seed potatoes and two, see the garden and merrily dig without breaking my spade!

The pigs seem to be having a jolly time huddled together in their palace – at least it is giving the field a bit of a rest from their ruthless digging. Mrs J’s daughter (still needs a name!) appears to be a rather grumpy girl and already has had a rather vicious swipe for my backside. There’s no room for unfriendly behaviour here – have decided that there is only one thing for it – once she’s produced – she’s for the sausage machine!!

Still no progress with the moles .

Monday 2nd February 2009 – A brief trip to warmth

Despite my love of surprises, I fired a multitude of questions at D as we headed off, car packed to some mysterious destination, in the desperate hope of gleaning as many clues as possible as to our destination. All to no avail, I was promptly told to shut up and sit quietly for the next 3 hours!

I duly dozed off but was soon woken as the car came to a halt outside one of my favourite pubs. We’d arrived and only after 40 minutes!

D had played a blinder – a short stay in a beautiful old rectory a few minutes walk from the pub. Having arrived in good time, we scuttled up to our warm room and lounge about in a state of semi – undress (ie jumpers off!) simply not possible at HP if you are to avoid extremities turning black and dropping off!

We returned to HP with a spring in our step and much as we love the old place  it’s reassuring to know there is warm refuge close by for the  ocassional treat and an opportunity to ditch the damart in favour of the frillies!

It’s certainly a return to thermals today – we are back to frozen pipes and a hefty covering of the white stuff. The pigs are still huddled in their palace and the dogs are refusing to budge from their beds. As for us, a cancelled meeting in the smoke leaves me unexpectedly free and D is having one of his ‘working from home’ days .

Another cup of tea and then to the woodshed - I must perfect my log splitting technique and then of course there are the mole traps to check.  If they have any sense the little blighters will be keeping  deep underground to protect themselves not only from the ravages of this bitter weather but my hunting instinct and collection of scissor traps!!