Chickens come home to roost

This busy week has drawn to a close with 5 new additions to our household (well, perhaps not in our house itself...), but before we get to the chickens, we owe you an update on that busy week!


Sunday

The second part of last weekend was little more restful than the first - in fact probably rather less so! While Stuart and I attempted a nod to the fact that it was Sunday and therefore ought to be a slower-paced morning, Mum and Dad were up and out bright and early as usual and even before Stuart and I had finished our breakfast, they were busy barrowing gravel down the driveway and moving pieces of cut wood around! Keen not to appear as if we weren't pulling our weight, Stuart headed straight out after making up this year's two jars of chestnut liqueur (with chestnuts picked and prepared courtesy of Mum & Dad), while I finished off blogging, before heading out myself.

Chestnut brandy (chestnuts collected in and around Vellano) and Chestnut rum (chestnuts all from our property).

I continued the tedious but necessary process of raking the terraces that we'd cleared a couple of weeks back. Over the last 12 months, we have learnt the hard way that if you steam ahead clearing terraces without cleaning up after yourself (which is all too easy to do when you are unveiling new ground, releasing tangled olive trees from the thorny grips of mounds of bramble and discovering terraces that haven't seen the light of day for twenty years or more), it will come back to bite you on the backside. Last year, we enthusiastically cleared terraces both above and below the house without a thought to clearing up behind ourselves, leaving piles of cut acacia and thick carpets of bramble clippings across the 'cleared' terraces, blinded by the excitement of being able to see newly unveiled terraces. Where the lower terraces were concerned, we were very fortunate to have the help of our HelpX-ers Holly and Zach, who spent gruelling and tedious days raking the terraces and burning the rakings so that we would be left with beautiful clear terraces ready for our vegetable beds. The upper terraces, on the other hand, were rather neglected and didn't see any 'cleaning' action. The result of which was that nature took hold again, presenting us not only with a forest of acacia trees on the very terraces that we'd cleared just months earlier, but also threading tendrils of bramble, blades of grass and creeping vines through the piles of twigs and branches that we'd carelessly left up there - making the task of clearing up several months later almost impossible. The lesson we have learned here is that we simply must not get too carried away with the exhilaration of clearing new land but we need to take things slowly and steadily, and clean up as we go.

So, while I raked, Stuart went along the drive with the chainsaw to cut down a couple of trees that Dad had spotted on the driveway which he felt it would be prudent to cut down, and to start cutting up part of one of the large pine trees that had fallen way back in the big storm of March. Mum and Dad then spent the rest of the morning, and indeed much of the afternoon moving pieces of tree down the driveway.

Lucca watches the workers.

We all worked on until around 4pm, when we downed tools so that we could take Reggie out for a walk before the daylight faded. We walked along the river Pescia in town, with the light all but gone by the time we got back to the car. Before heading home, we decided to check out the mini chestnut festival that was going on in the small square to the south of the main square. The festa wasn't much to write home about - just a handful of stalls, but they still had their braziers up and running and we treated ourselves to two bags of piping hot roast chestnuts to share between us. The chestnuts were delicious and well worth the detour.

Monday

Monday morning saw Stuart heading off up the valley with Mum and Dad to deliver them to Croce a Veglia, a point at the head of the valley from where they had planned a day's walking. The weather was bright and clear, which seemed like a good start for their day.

After that, Stuart called in to see Donatella on his way back home, while I spent the morning working in the office.

The afternoon was spent with Stuart making some progress on the construction of the shed - before the shed can go up, the old doorway needs to be fully blocked up and insulated, so he spent the afternoon constructing a 'cat tunnel' from the cat flap through an air gap (to be filled with insulation material). Meanwhile, I started a bonfire and spent more than three hours burning some of the bramble and clippings that I'd piled up in my raking. Even after a whole afternoon's burning, I barely seemed to have made a dent in the enormous pile we need to get rid of!

Doorway almost blocked up, insulation in the air gap, and cat tunnel in place.

Stuart headed off up the valley to collect Mum and Dad at around 4.30pm - they came back after having had a wonderful day - perfect weather, stunning views (we can vouch for this as we were treated to a viewing of their photos in the evening), a rather strenuous walk by the sounds of things, involving some steep climbs and precipitous drops, but they both seemed very happy indeed with their day's excursion.

Tuesday

We decided to give Reggie a walk first thing on Tuesday morning, in order to make sure that he didn't miss out, so we collected Mum & Dad and headed for the other side of Sorana. We had a good walk along the track, which was carpeted in golden autumn leaves, before heading home for another morning of raking, shed building, wood moving and so on.

After lunch, it was time for our weekly Italian lesson at David and Sarah's in Vellano. Mum and Dad fancied another stretch of their legs, so we dropped them off on the outskirts of Pietrabuona, where they planned to have a look around the village before heading up the hill towards Medicina. Meanwhile, we headed for Vellano and another good lesson with Johnny.

After leaving David and Sarah's we drove to the Medicina road to pick up Mum and Dad - darkness was beginning to fall by this stage, but they'd made their way all the way up to the village and about halfway back down again, and had enjoyed their second walk of the day.

On Tuesday evening, Mum and Dad treated us to another meal out. This time, we decided to try another restaurant that was new to us - and another one recommended by David and Sarah. We went to Lucignolo in the Santa Lucia area just outside Pescia. Thankfully we'd been briefed by David on how to find the place - it was tucked away in the most unlikely place next to a sports field! The restaurant was lovely - sleek and modern in style, and the food was absolutely delicious. We had a very enjoyable evening indeed, a lovely way to spend the last evening of Mum and Dad's visit.

A lovely evening with Mum & Dad at Lucignolo.

Wednesday

The pace slowed somewhat on Wednesday morning, and instead of all rushing up the terraces or along the driveway to collect wood, we instead headed out on a shopping trip. We were heading for the ipercoop complex outside Montecatini, but our first stop was at the charming café that we'd found on 'soil stack day' a couple of months ago when we were waiting for builders merchants to reopen after their lunch. Anyway, we stopped for a round of coffees before heading on our way to the shops. Next, we pulled in to Maury's - a kind of a large hardware/homeware shop with such a wealth of things on offer that you tend to come out with a dozen items that you didn't go in to buy. Such was the case today: we'd gone in intending to buy a washing-up bowl for the apartment but left with two washing-up bowls, some hand soap, toothpaste (on special offer), a photo album, a box file, an adapter and a hand whisk!

Next on the shopping expedition was Decathlon. I needed a new pair of work trousers, and where better to go than Decathlon? I soon found a pair, and we picked up a new work t-shirt for Stuart while we were at it, before finally heading to Obi. We left Obi after procuring a canopy to go over our front door and several packs of tongue-and-groove, which Stuart needed in order to finish constructing the new version of the woodpile.

Mammoth shopping trip done, we had about an hour back at home to do a few bits of work before heading out again, this time for lunch. Mum and Dad wanted to take us out for lunch before they left, so we decided to head for the Toti restaurant, another lovely place that is tucked away off the Lucca road. We had yet another delicious meal there - enjoying a pasta dish and a main course each (as well as a carafe of wine and coffee all round) on their incredibly good value €10 workers' lunch menu. We also enjoyed a chat with a Dutch gentleman on the next table to us, whom we'd first met back in March at Pescia train station on the day after the big storm. We had been there with Zach and Holly, who were trying to get a train to Florence, and the gentleman had been there too, also trying to find out what was going on with the trains and trying to get to Florence. Remarkably he recognised us in the restaurant and we had a nice chat with him, discovering that he is a professor of oncology at Pisa University.

Anyway, meal dispatched, pleasantries exchanged, we left the restaurant and headed back to Pescia. We made one final stop, pulling into a parking space near to La Baracchina and ordering ice creams from the little gelateria, which we ate on a bench overlooking the river.

By the time we got home, there was only a little over an hour until we needed to set off for the airport, so while Mum and Dad finished their packing, Stuart and I took Reggie for a quick walk at San Lorenzo, this time heading along the road and up the hill behind the hotel.

All too soon, it was time to leave Reggie looking after the house, pack Mum and Dad's cases into the car and head towards Pisa. As ever, saying goodbye was the hardest part of the visit. It had been a lovely 10 days and once again Mum and Dad have helped move us on with our jobs, working harder than many people less than half their age would dream of doing, and being generous as ever with paying for meals out and more. We were thankful that we didn't have a repeat of the weather we had when they visited us last October (when it was mainly very wet), and delighted that not only was the weather better, but that we had some stunning weather, perfect for Mum and Dad's excursions. Most of all, it was lovely just having them here, knowing they were just downstairs in the apartment. We hope their next visit won't be too long away.

Thursday

Thursday was a very strange day – it felt very quiet and we both felt a bit drained and empty. It was, after all, the first day in several weeks when we neither had visitors nor were preparing for them! While I got my head down in the office for a while, Stuart made progress with the construction of the new woodpile using the banner material he'd bought last week.

We took Reggie for a walk along the cava track after lunch, and when we got home Stuart finished off the woodpile while I (under Stuart's instruction) created a 'poop collector' for the chicken house (first sawing off the bottom of the old plastic goose pool, to create a collection tray, then building a wooden frame and covering it with mesh to go over the tray) and fitted an 'alighting board' in the chicken house next to the nest boxes. With these jobs done in the chicken house, we were hopeful that we might even be able to fill the house with real live chickens on Friday morning!

Reggie crunching through the autumn leaves.

Poop collector in construction.

Friday

While I quickly logged into my work email, Stuart did a couple of runs to the bins with some of the piles of rubbish that we'd accumulated over recent weeks. I don't know what it is about living here, but we seem to accumulate unsightly piles of rubbish e.g. broken garden umbrellas, washing machines, old electric water heaters, scraps of fencing mesh, empty bags of concrete... in what seems like a matter of hours after having taken the last lot to the bins. Anyway, temporarily, at least, the rubbish pile disappeared.

After that, the two of us got into the car and headed off for a morning of errands. First stop was the office of the Coldiretti, an organisation that deals with farmers and agricultural workers (that's about as far as I understand what it does, if you want to know more, ask Stuart!). Stuart wanted to make an enquiry about registering for an agricultural tax code and, after waiting for a while in the waiting area, we were seen by a friendly man who gave us some information and sent us on our way. The visit was somewhat distressing for me - on entering the office and looking at the noticeboard, I realised I barely understood any of the words on the notices, and when we were finally seen, I didn't really grasp much of what the man was saying. After having felt as if I was making some small progress with my Italian, this made me feel like I didn't know or understand a thing!

Thankfully, the next stop was less taxing - a stop for a quick coffee at a new café (that is, new to us) on the outskirts of town - before heading to Borgo a Buggiano to visit one of the agragria there to buy a bale of straw and a water container for chickens... Final stop for the morning, then... was to Perondi, a.k.a. (at least in our house) 'Mr Chicken'.

We weren't sure whether Mr Chicken would actually be able to give us birds there and then, or whether we would have to order them from him, but we were hopeful. We explained that we wanted 4 hens and a cockerel. He listened patiently, then started shooting off a list of questions at us at (what felt like) breakneck speed. He asked us whether we had a pollaio (hen house), to which we smiled broadly and proudly described the chicken house, complete with photos on Stuart's phone. Mr Chicken wasn't happy though -  he said that wood is not good and that we need to paint bitumen on the walls and floors to cover cracks in the wood, that we need to insulate the structure, that we need to put mesh over the side of the house so that if it's raining we can open up the side of it and they can stay indoors but with plenty of fresh air, and that we need to cover the floor with a sheet of plastic for easy cleaning. He said a lot of other things as well, but for the second time today I struggled to grasp much of what was being said, my barely existent language confidence quickly seeping away like quicksand!!

By the time Mr Chicken had finished his little lecture, we were both certain that he was about to turn us away and tell us to come back when we'd made all the modifications to the chicken house with photos to prove it - but instead, he grabbed two cardboard boxes and scurried off to the large chicken sheds to pick us some birds! Not 20 minutes later, we were pulling away with a boot load of birds - not that you'd know it, with 4 hens were crammed snugly into one box, and the cockerel getting the luxury of a whole box to himself.

When we got home, we took the boxes out of the boot and put them in a shady spot while we quickly put the finishing touches on the birds' new home: we covered the floor in sawdust, filled their new water container, filled up the food container and put straw into the nest boxes. Finally we were ready!

Nest boxes, complete with alighting board.

Poop collector in situ beneath roosting bars.

Stuart first released the cockerel into his new home - he stood on the threshold looking a bit uncertain. Then it was time for the hens. I managed to get three of them in (although there was a bit of a log jam as they all stood on the threshold looking a bit uncertain), but one of them decided she would rather be entirely free range. As I reached into the box to pick her up, she flapped her wings and managed to get out and scurry across the enclosure. Stuart tried to follow her, but she was quick and got away each time. Before we knew it, she'd got flustered, flapped her wings and had managed to get enough air under her to flap up to the top of the fencing, where she sat wobbling back and forth like a Weeble (if you didn't grow up in the UK in the 1970s - early 80s, look up Weebles here - although it seems they made a bit of a comeback recently).

As quickly  as he could, Stuart exited the enclosure, grabbed a stick to wave around, and made his way to where the bird sat swaying on the top of the fence. He made a couple of attempts to persuade her to flap back into the enclosure, but she had other ideas and flapped off into the undergrowth. At this point we both thought hen no. 4 was gone for good. Ah well, 3 hens and a cockerel was probably enough... But on searching the undergrowth, Stuart found that escapee-hen was simply sitting quietly in a bed of bramble and making no attempt to move any further. He swiftly grabbed her, scrambled his way back around to the gate, and deposited her safely inside the house with her friends. Panic over, we quickly shut the door on the new inmates and decided to leave them to settle in. We plan to leave them in their house for about a week (with fresh water and food of course) before letting them out to explore the wider area of the enclosure (er... hopefully with no more escapees), in the hopes that by that time they will be sufficiently well settled in their house to know where to go at the end of the day.

5 chickens (no really...)

The cockerel was first in.

(The real) Mr Chicken.

Followed by the hens.

Two white hens, two red hens.

It wasn't even this one that escaped.

All safely in the house.

After the excitement of the morning, it was time for a quick lunch before Samantha arrived for my weekly Italian lesson. Stuart took Reggie for a walk by the river while Samantha worked hard to slightly restore my faith in my ability to learn Italian, and by the time she left, I was feeling a little less disheartened than I had been in the morning!

So, as another busy week comes to an end, we have finally got livestock again and feel more like a real 'farm' or smallholding again. We're looking forward to seeing the chickens out and about in their enclosure soon, and of course looking forward to the day when they start producing eggs for us!