I do not know for you, but for me 2024 came with much ups and downs and did not flow as smooth as other years did. We can call that "the surprises of life" I guess.
Nevertheless, we will end on a very positive note :
We are proud to announce that we have RECEIVED, quite rapidly, OUR BUILDING PERMIT !!
And our cat Honcho has already moved in ;)
The French procedure states that a board should be posted at the entrance of the building lot 2 months prior to start. The board gives all the information related to the new build.
Anybody can acquire more information at city hall during that 2 months period.
We will probably start the demolition of the actual garage around February depending on the weather.
New chickens
We had 13 hens and 2 roosters but in October, I decide to get younger hens to increase our egg production this coming summer and to try to get a new group happening for our young rooster so we could keep him. I selected the new birds on 3 characteristics:
brooding capacity
medium egg size
egg color for FUN
On a Wednesday morning, we left with my little 1989 Opel Corsa to get 8 new hens: 3 black ones that should be good broody moms, 3 Sussex white hens who are good laying chickens and 2 "Azur" who gives BLUE eggs.
What makes different colored eggshells? As an egg travels through the chicken’s oviduct, the shell starts forming white. Since different breed chicken releases different pigments during the shell formation, the end result is different. As simple as that. This has nothing to do with nutritional value or taste, all eggs are the same inside.
Butn this could be a nice add on to our Bed and Breakfast idea!! And I recently heard RED eggs existed too!!
Getting more chickens means as well cleaning the chicken coop more often especially in the winter when they stay longer inside because the daylight is shorter and also because it rains more.
But this time, I decided as well to clean the compost pile of chicken manure. I was really pleased with the composting process. I separated the nice brown dirt from the rest of the straw and filled 6 big plastic bags. Mixed to usual compost and our clay ground, this nice rich manure will serve me next year to prepare the seeding beds in the small green house.
Staying on the "chicken" subject...
Lately, we were visited by a dutch couple, friends of ours living in Cahors which is about 2h30 north of Aulon. They came on a Monday evening accompanied .... by their rooster ;) The animal had a bandage around one of his leg that needed daily care.
They were really well organized: the small rooster had his own cage, some straw, his grain and his medicated water. Each morning the wound was disinfected and again wrapped up for the day.
We installed him in the foyer of the house which has closed doors. It was a secured place with fresh air and light.
But we forgot that little roosters sing and the first morning he started at 03:00 in the morning. I woke up in stress thinking that the rooster was just next to my pillow. But no. When I realized he would keep on singing every hour, I went to move him in a dark room in the back of the house and this is where he spent every night after that, haha!!
It was a great visit, thank you very much to Irna and Frans. Dikke kus xxx
I really wanted to wrap up this year with the last news. I am grateful for all of you for following us all these years.
Wishing you all a marvelous Holiday Season with your loved ones and friends and a great start for 2025 which could be seen as a year of completion, REFLECTING ON THE COMING YEARS (if you believe in numerology ;) )
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