Hen in a jumper

My husband and I never take a break from living a self-sufficient lifestyle, not even when we go on holiday! We went camping in the south of Germany last month and the camp site we stayed at had lots of apple trees. No one was picking them, so we asked the owner if we could pick the apples and he said sure, pick as many as you like. So we did! We snacked on them; used them to make apple pancakes and I even used them to make apple puree to have with breakfast! It seemed such a waste just to let them rot in the ground. By the way, my husband and I have grown over 200 kilograms of fruit and vegetables this year!

We had a lovely holiday travelling, meeting family and friends, but when we came home we noticed one of our hens had a limp wing. At first we thought it might just be sprained, but when she showed no improvement after 4 days, I examined her more closely and I now suspect she has broken it. There is not much you can do about a broken wing, apart from strapping it against her body, so that it can heal. When we had the ex-battery chickens, I had little knitted chicken jumpers to keep them warm if they ever lost their feathers. These fit snugly around a chicken, with a hole for its head and space for the wings, but if you fold it in half, the knitted bit fits around the wings so it offers some support. So, that’s exactly what we did! We now have one white chicken with a snazzy pink jumper running around the place! We also noticed that Tufty had lost all her breast feathers. Apparently some hens (Tufty included) peck at their chest feathers when they feel broody, so she also now sports a funky little knitted jumper to keep her warm. They’ve started a bit of a fashion trend - our neighbours’ chickens are so jealous!

By the way, our little, ‘tame’ robin we fed every morning last winter is back this year again! Great news! He (or she) can be assured there will be some tasty titbits left every morning on top of the chicken’s food storage bins. It’s just such a nice way to start the day, watching the wee fella tuck into his breakfast treats!

It’s been very quite on the TV-extra front lately, I haven’t had much free time and there simply isn’t that much being filmed where extras are needed. But if you have been watching BBC1’s The Cry (like 5.7 million other people), you might have spotted a familiar looking face in the background. In episode 3 the main character is in an (Australian!) bar and throughout the entire scene you can see me chatting away in the background. This scene is a perfect example of how you just never know whether you will appear on TV or not. There were around 20 other extras on the day, but only three (including me) appeared in the final shot! I was one of the lucky ones this time, I guess.