Monday 7th May 2012
There is a wrong way up for sheep netting

 Another nice few days and we have found where the ducks have been going when they dissapear.
 They have been toddling over to Mr Scotts farm up the road and helping themselves to his cattle feed as his sheds are now open.
 Because of this we have had to imprison the ducks in the garden. At least we can find the eggs now and we are getting 3 duck eggs per day on top of all the hens eggs.

 I shall now have to fence one side of the top field with wire netting because the numpty that originally put the sheep netting round the field put it on upside down so that the big holes are at the bottom.
 Gareth and I fenced 2 sides of the field when we first moved in, so they are OK and the remaining side was fenced correctlyin the first place.

 After rounding up the ducks and putting them in the garden as a temporary measure, I was thinking that at least one problem was solved  when I noticed that the geese had got out into the bottom field. They had somehow managed to get under the 2 gates and when I caught up with them, they were legging it off down the green lane at the side of the field and heading towards the sea. I use the term "green lane" loosely. In fact it is supposed to be a lane but it is full of old farm machinery and slowly rotting silage bales so it is a bit of a challenge to walk down. Surprisingly though, even the one remaining gosling was managing to make it at a good speed.

In the end the geese were returned to the field, the wire netting was put up along the fence and the gate was dropped on its hinges a bit so all should be OK.

 I have been having some practice at "flat-pack" assembly for the past few days. On Thursday a filing cabinet arrived and there were so many different bits that I had to resort to reading the instructions. I would have thought that a filing cabinet would be simple but I am sure that they are having a laugh when they design them.
 Next day it was a desk but by this time I was getting more experience and apart from sorting out which piece was which, I only had to look fleetingly at the instructions.
 On Saturday, Pam's excercise bike arrived and by this time the instructions were almost superfluous. Much to Pam,s surprise, all three items work correctly and much to my surprise, of all the three pieces I was only left with one spare washer.

 It was election day for the local council the other day and all was high drama. There has been quite a bit of animosity in all of the Orkney parishes. One of our local councillors had questioned the expenses claims of the council convenor, pointing out that he was getting an allowance of £25 per day for staying in his own second home. ( Shades of Westminster). The convenor represents the northern isles and has a second house on the mainland so he has been claiming an allowance that it seems was designed to allow island councillors to stay with friends or family on the mainland for staying in his own house.

 Because he denounced the convenor a few weeks ago, our councillor was forced out from the position of chairman of the accounts committee and there has been a lot of personal animosity during the run up to the election.
 We elect 3 councillors for our ward and Ross Madge, the errant councillor romped home with a vastly increased vote and about 3 times the number of votes as his nearest rival and the second highest number of votes in the whole council.
 It should be fun at the first few meetings of the new council.

 One of the hens has gone broody, so on Monday, I stuck 10 eggs under her. I shall now have to harden my heart and bump off some of the hens that have faults. Some of my Andalusians have bad feet and although they will lay OK, there is no point in keeping those that are not right. There are also a couple of Pam's hens that need to go but I do not think that she will let me neck them. If Pam had her way, we would be running a home for crippled chickens.

 That's it for now. I have to go and try to finish another masterpiece.