Don't fence me in

Fencing seems to have been the order of the week this week. Fed up with constantly having to retrieve the dog from the neighbors or half a mile away in the village we decided we needed some fencing. A fence contractor offered to do it for six grand. So with that in mind Zoe set to and decided to do it herself. It wasn't long before she needed an assistant and in the end (finishing about half an hour ago) we managed to finish it. So hopefully no more escaped dog (until someone leaves the gate open).

With it being Zoe's birthday and our house warming party this week there has been plenty to do. On top of that the piglets arrive Monday and there is still plenty of work to do to get the field ready for them. Zoe made the base to a pig arc hoping we could then buy the corrugated metal for the roof. It was then we found that no one makes or sells metal pig arc roofs anymore. So after a quick trip to the wood shop the roof now needs building from wood in time for their imminent arrival.
As usual the chickens are keeping us on our toes. Despite my best efforts to make the egg box look inviting by keeping eggs in there and full of hay, none of the girls will go broody as I was hoping. That leaves two options: buying chickens or incubating them. Both have their advantages. Rearing chicks is fun and then you get some eaters as well as layers. However buying them is nice and easy as they just arrive and lay the next day. The only issue is how they will all integrate with each other. Black Star is now ill and in isolation. We have been thinking we might loose her, however she seems to have perked up a little bit this afternoon in her isolation barn so fingers crossed there.

I am hoping next week we can finally get on and construct this polytunnel. So far I have got the posts in place marking out where it will go (a good bit of Pythagoras in action getting that all square) and I have started to dig up one of the beds that will be at the side of the tunnel. I want to get them built before we put the tunnel up as it sounds like a recipe for destroying the plastic cover digging right next to it.
We have being doing well with bird visitors. As well as the swallows living in the barn we seem to have chicks of Robins, Coal tits, Gold Finches and Sparrows around the house. The amount of seed these birds get through is quite amazing. Apparently the Sparrows might be tree Sparrows but to be honest I am still nor very good at telling the difference. Both seem to be small and brown to me.
I am off to tend to the tomatoes now. They are getting quite big and desperately need staking as they are all at funny angles. I am also timing how long it is before the dog finds a way out of the fence!