Animals & Nature Page

Since moving to my smallholding high in the Welsh Valleys the personal interests of my wife and I have reverted closer to nature as the months go by. When we moved in most of the usable garden was covered with around Ľ acre of corrugated steel sheds that the previous owner used for manufacturing furniture. Since then we have spent untold amounts of hard earned resources removing every last vestige of the previous occupants and have so far removed over 120 tons of concrete, glass and around 50 years worth of rubbish that was under the concrete before we finally found the heavily compacted soil which again was littered with broken glass.

Towards the end of 1999 the garden was in a reasonable state for us to start bringing in livestock with the eventual aim of become as self sufficient as possible just like Tom and Barbara in the Good Life except in our case it will be the Toogood Life. The first animals we bought were 3 hens (Wellsomers/Light Sussex cross) followed by another 3 to keep up with the egg demand from my work colleagues.

The main plan for 2000 however is to finally get the garden area back to what it was up until just after the War when the disposable nature of people today took over and they became dependant on supermarkets. The first job has been to replace the deficit left by the concrete hardstands with some decent topsoil (32 ton so far) and repair the derelict fences. We have also bought enough hazelnut hedging to cover up the gaps left when the ever expanding sheds killed off certain areas. Another purchase has been an assortment of high yield fruit trees to complement the remaining ones here from the old orchard that used to take the form of a boundary around the site.

Of the more conventional animals in our ever expanding menagerie are five cats namely Thom an 20 year old Norwegian Forest cat who is without a doubt the fiercest domestic cat I have ever encountered. He was two stone when I first met Kim and before he had "the chop" and his cheek glands were huge making him an impressive sight and as far as I know he has never lost a fight and he has the scars to prove it with his bitten ears and scarred head. He has started to act his age in recent years (140 cat years) but he still gives the other male (Piglet) a run for his money if he can be bothered moving from his furry rug in front of the coal fire.

Piglet is an almost pure white part Siamese and is also my wife's favourite as he was orphaned from birth and she had to hand rear him with a tiny bottle. Now however he thinks Kim is his mother and barely leaves her side day and night, in fact he sleeps by the side of Kim's pillow every night.

Vulpet and Ditic are black DSH twins but are nothing alike as Vulpet is the posh and sleek one that rejected her kittens and forced Ditic to rear them. Even now she will not eat with the "lower echelons" and eat on her own.

Finally there came along Tikka who was dumped at Kim's practice because she was pregnant and the owners wanted to have her put down so once again Kim took her in. Tikka got her name from what we originally thought was the colour of her feet which gave the appearance that she had walked in a bowl of Tikka Masalla sauce but after a few weeks it washed off and we found out it was the colour from the never changed cat litter she had to use.

The latest edition to our menagerie are various breeds of good laying hens. At present we have 5 Wellsomers-Light Sussex cross (used to be 6), 6 Speckled and 4 White Leghorns to help us on our way to self-sufficiency. They live about as free range a life as is possible with a third of an acre within the garden walls and hundreds of acres of fields all around. However, they have all they need in the garden so they don't wander too much. This is fortunate as there is quite a population of foxes in the area and at least 12 Buzzards circling the skies. The only risk being to the imbecilic youth that live in the locality. We also have a two young female goats, a British Toggenburg and British Alpine with the aim of getting them mated and milked when the time comes.

	RIP Long Neck The Super Hen Spring 1999 to August 11th 2000
	On the evening of August 11th 2000 at around 7PM our favourite hen Long Neck was run over and left to die in agony outside our house by some idiot driving too fast in their car. She was by far our best layer with an extra large size egg laid every day with the occasional huge double if she missed a day. She was also the most amusing and inquisitive of all the hens as can be seen from the photo. She will greatly missed and impossible to replace.
Long Neck and some of her sisters at feeding time
Eulogy to Long Neck the Superhen by Kim Toogood Beneath the tree upon the hill Longneck's lying very still Her life did not get very far She was wiped out by some twat's car She woke up early in the morn And ate her little meal of corn She laid a fresh egg every day And pecked and clucked her chicken way Until that sad and fateful day An idiot took her life away And all I hope is when He's dead That Longneck's ghost shits on his head.
R.I.P. Rocky The Rooster Easter 2000 - 6th October 2000. During the day of 6th October some idiots untrained dog was allowed to run unhindered over the common. During the entire day it was left to run around attacking sheep but at some point it decided that it couldn't catch any so it entered our garden and proceeded to attack our chickens. All the hens ran off and hid but our faithful pedigree White Leghorn Rocky stood his ground to protect the others. As a result he was quite literally ripped to shreds and left outside the gate to our garden. This dog was seen again later and was chased by the farmer with his shotgun but it managed to evade him. If I catch the dog, it will be less lucky and will ensure that it suffers as painful a death as poor Rocky did. If I identify the owner I will also ensure that they get a bill for the cost of a Pedigree White Leghorn and the costs of putting their dog to sleep.