Winter feed

Here's the £4.99 feeder I've set up so the chickens don't starve. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays it'll soon be dark when I get up to the allotment after work, and the feathered fiends won't appreciate being woken up, so I bought this feeder. It's meant for garden birds and when I first tried it, after a few minutes going straight for what they could see and bashing away at the plastic, the girls had difficulty getting the feed because the feeding holes weren't big enough.

Enlarged the holes and when I arrived this afternoon it looked a success on the evidence that most of the feed had gone. That doesn't mean Mr Ratty isn't helping himself. I also put the feeding tray out when I arrive and whilst three of the chickens helped themselves for only a short period, Connor Chicken still fed for a while. Maybe she's not got the idea yet... I'll have to keep the whole thing under review for a few days.

Spent Monday afternoon hauling horse manure from Manor Farm Equestrian Centre. They had a huge pile of the stuff and I helped myself to the most mature of it at the back. Half went onto three of my raised beds, the rest in one of the compost bins to see if I can turn it onto good enough compost to use for seeds in the Spring. Unlike previous years, when I've picked a rainy day to do the job and had the car steamed up as a result, the weather stayed dry. I only did two trips this time, fourteen bags of manure, having decided to do little and often rather than the haul of thirty-five bags I've done in the past!

Although my birthday isn't until the end of the month I was allowed to order my present early, and it arrived on Tuesday... a Pure Evoke 3 DAB radio. Have had a good fiddle with it. Looked up the EPG where you can select and see details of a programme up to seven days in the future, then press the record button to record it to an SD card (haven't tried that bit yet, nor the pause and replay function). I've also saved MP3 files to the card and played the music. Love listening to radio, and this new one (I've now got four!) will ensure I never miss a programme that sounds interesting.

Lost 3-0 to David at squash on Sunday. though I'm still 4-3 ahead this month. Better success at tennis last night against Barry, I won 6-3.