Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 941 : When Nature Calls, The Rabbit Runs

I've been on a bit of a tidying purge this past week.

There's always so much to do on a homestead with the planting, the fixing, the making, the digging, the building, the sowing...

There is never enough time to keep the place tidy.

And through the summer everything is growing like crazy which just adds to the look of wild abandon and disarray.

So this week we started clearing around the house and in the yard.

The front of our house is covered in ivy. We cut it back each year but it just grows and it grows. I was a bit late on it this year and it was trying to sneak into our bedroom.

A ladder, secateurs and a good tug and that got cut down to size.

Finally I got read of our spare Vauxhall Zafira that had been molding away in the corner. I got it from the scrapyard to replace the doors on my Zafira after a little bumpity-bump with a bollard.

It earnt its keep several times over as we stripped it of lights, brakes and various bits and bobs.

But now it's gone back to the scrapyard from where I bought it.

That has freed up the space at the end of the house for the scaffolding that is coming this week for fixing the leaking chimney.

We've also been doing some more work on restoring the old orchard.

When we first moved here the apple, pear and plum trees used to be full of fruit every year.

But the yield has fallen off over the years. This wasn't helped by the Angora goats that we used to have getting in and giving some of the trees a friendly nibble.

The reduction in fruit has mainly been due to the surrounding trees, shrubs and bushes growing up and up, almost totally cutting off the light to the fruit trees.

We've made a start with the big holly tree on the corner that was totally shielding several of the fruit trees with its dense leaf structure.

That holly tree has been cut well back now. It will grow again very soon.

We also continued clearing out the coach house ready to make it into my 'Prepper HQ' (ie well organised store room).

It seems endless. I really don't know how I got so much in there. Today's load to the dump included cardboard boxes, an old duvet, a broken printer, damaged children's bike helmets, a toy phone, an imitation sheepskin rug that the cat slept in, more cardboard boxes, old cds and vhs videos... It just keeps coming - but I can at last see the floor in places now.

I always get to the dump on Sundays just before it closes at 3pm.

On the way back I pop into the local supermarket. That closes at 4pm so just when I get there they are doing the big markdowns on the products that have reached their sell-by date.

I got some good bargains today including some noodles and some nachos. And also a bunch of flowers for my wife.

I know I'm a cheapskate (they only cost £1.30 (US$1.68)) but it is the thought that counts.

And it was the memories too.

The flowers included red roses. When we were courting I used to take her a single red rose every time we met until we got married.

Another bargain at the supermarket was a treacle tart.

That's my eldest daughter's favourite.

I know it wasn't homemade but for 50p (US$0.64) who's going to argue.

Treacle tarts aren't so high on the healthy eating scale but I sorted it.

I had homegrown cucumber with mine 😎

After tea, it was raining and raining and raining. Much as it had been all day. But it was time to read the chickens their bedtime story.

Eventually I braved up and took out their evening snacks.

The pet rabbit now lives in the new chicken compound. It's a quarter acre of fresh grass and double fencing. She has been loving it there running around and digging holes in the mounds in the compound.

She is a very friendly rabbit. She always runs to greet us at the gate when we take her food.

But this evening she didn't. She was nowhere to be seen.

.

Then I found a hole. It seems she made a break for it. The overlapping fencing skirts down about a foot on the outside. It was designed to stop foxes digging in. We hadn't thought about rabbits digging out.

Why would she want to get out? She has everything she might want in the compound.

Early this morning my wife saw a wild rabbit in the yard heading over to the chicken compound. We've never seen one here before.

I'm guessing love has come a calling 😍

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You might also be interested in some of my other recent posts :

• [GUESS THE YEAR - WIN 3 SBD] - Professor Pennington's Experiments in Time Travel No.2

• Professor Pennington's History Archives : Convent High School, Loughborough (Form 4a, 1946)

• Professor Pennington's Experiments in Time Travel No.1 [GUESS THE YEAR - WIN 3 SBD]

• Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 949 : The State of the Prep - 50 Day Review

• What the Muscovy Brothers would do with $50 SBD

[all images provided by @pennsif]