Lakin Farm

A short while ago all but one of our chickens were eaten by a mink.

We are pretty sure it was a mink who got them, but it could have been a badger. These are the only two culprits who could have done it as there are no foxes on the island.

The grisly discovery was made by Rueben, who followed a trail of feathers through the fields to a dense patch of trees. We only found one of the chickens feet.

The last remaining chicken has been re housed at a farm down the road from us. John Luke went to see her the other day and was sure she recognised him.

We have bought ourselves a tractor to help fetch and carry things around the farm.

It is only a small 25 horse power model, but is perfectly adequate for our needs.

Driving the tractor is good fun as it goes pretty much anywhere you want to go (within reason).

John Luke is eager to learn how to drive the tractor, and thinks it will be a good way for him to get to school.

The gearbox has high and low settings, so when he is big enough to reach all the pedals safely (which won’t be long now) he can drive around in first gear on the low setting.

This gives the engine plenty of pulling power but a very low top speed of about 2 miles an hour. This should give him ample time to avoid any oncoming obstacles / trees etc.

Abigail’s language skills are improving day by day. As is her walking and crawling (she can crawl down a flight of stairs backwards).

When you talk to her she likes to try copy the things you say. Although she can’t make all the vowel and consonant sounds yet, she is very good at copying the rhythm of words.

One word she has made her own is ‘that’, which she pronounces ‘dat’

Mostly we know what ‘dat’ means as she points to the thing she is after.

Sometimes though she makes life difficult by pointing in the general direction of a group of objects and demands ‘Dat dat dat dat!’ over and over until you hand her what she wants.

Then she gives a little laugh which means ‘yes I got it’.

To combat summer holiday boredom, John Luke’s grandad and I have spent two days building John Luke a tree house.

There is no roof as yet, but when it is complete it will be a weatherproof den for people of all ages.

All the ‘grown ups’ have decided that when things get a little fraught in their own homes, the tree house will be the perfect little bolt hole.

John Luke and I are also planning to build a trebuchet near to the tree house, and a crossbow mounted somewhere in the tree house.

With these weapons we hope to be able to repel any attacks our (imaginary) enemies may mount.

For me, the crossbow is the less exciting of the two weapons. John Luke’s uncle, Reuben, has some experience with bow making, so I will leave it to him to build.

The trebuchet is far a more exciting project. I like the idea of flinging rocks, stones and burning missiles around the place.

This week we took delivery of our first chickens.

We have four hens and one (rather diminutive) cockerel, that John Luke has named ‘Cocky’. As yet the hens don’t have names.

Not having names may be a good thing, for us any way, as there will be a time when we have to put the hens in the pot. This would be more difficult if we treat them like pets.

The hens are laying about two eggs a day, and they taste great.

John Luke was very excited when he picked up his first freshly laid (warm) egg.