As sure as eggs is eggs

A soon-to-be-added addition to the menagerie here at the CFZ is a pair of chooks. David (Phillips) gave them to Jon for his birthday the other week, and they are due to arrive here over the coming weekend. There was a bit of a scramble at the end of last week, therefore, to try and find a suitable abode for them. However, thanks to good old Ebay, a super-duper house and run were purchased, which arrived on Tuesday. These arrived in several packages – all flatpacked, of course. As Graham pointed out, you are supposed to check that all components are present and correct before accepting delivery of such items, but as it was obvious that it would take quite a time to ascertain this (in fact it took nearly an hour to actually sort everything out on the lawn) Graham did not think that the delivery man would be best pleased if we had abided by these rules. An executive decision of excellent foresight lol.

Anyway, Graham has since been building Cluckberry Mansions (yes you did read that correctly – don’t ask), and weather-proofing it, and it has shaped up to be a pretty desirable residence, complete with window and front door – certainly not a paltry affair. All it needs is a chimney, hanging baskets and, perhaps, a satellite dish to finish it off to perfection.

I am a bit cheesed off actually, as I bought, during the Bank Holiday weekend, a new rabbit hutch/run for our other new resident – a dwarf rabbit called Maureen. The main point here is, that although this was purchased a week before the chicken house, it still has not arrived. This is a bit embarrassing really, as Maureen is, at present, in a hutch on loan from the lady who gave her to us, on the promise of this only being for a couple of days. However, this problem has now been chased up and the goods are supposedly being posted today – hmm one wonders if this would have been the case if they had not been chased, but we shall never know eh?

Oll has also been weatherproofing the bat, bird and hedgehog boxes that we received as wedding presents. The hedgehog box is now in place at the bottom of the garden and the other abodes will be placed around the trees in the next day or so. All I want to know is – how do the bats and birds know which is for whom? Yes, if a bird tries to squeeze into the entrance of a bat box it will find it extremely difficult, but how do they know just by looking at them in the first place?

Other news? Well, Exotic Pets has now reached ‘proof two’ stage and Animals & Men No. 41 is at ‘first proof’. It would seem that there may be a lot of posting to undertake in the next week! However, this time there will be no dry mouths from licking stamps. There will be no paper cuts on tongues either from licking down envelopes. Oh no! We have … drum roll … a new stock of self-seal envelopes and … wait for it … a franking machine! Hooray! Yes, the CFZ has come into the 21st Century.

STOP PRESS: Jon’s office has been tidied and cleaned. Poor chap. He is now sitting in the middle of … well, nothing really - just space. He looked a bit lost this afternoon - I think he might be suffering from an overdose of tidiness! He could actually now, if the inclination came upon him I suppose, swing a proverbial cat. Helios 7 has - rather intrepidly I think, and in true CFZ fashion - already volunteered for this experiment and is standing by with goggles and helmet in place. I think someone should tell her, perhaps, that the phrase is actually supposed to have originated from the cat o’nine tails as used on board ships to punish unruly tars. But, she is excited about it, so I don’t think I will tell her – she would be so disappointed.

We love her really.