Oh deep joy.......

The sun is shining again. That's 2 days now of fine dry weather with a mild breeze which is drying the ground out nicely. I went over to Norwich yesterday to buy a trio of French copper marans. I was lucky to get them at this time of year. They are still young birds not yet come into lay but should do in a few months. They seem to hav integrated into the flock here nicely with no aggression so far.
The chap was a nice enough young man, however I was sorry to see that he kept the ,majority of his fowl, as most people seem to keep them inasmuch, minimum housing and minimum run size. All the runs were on bare earth and with 4 Pekin bantams to a run of only 3 foot square or so, they were walking and pooping and pecking. He also had a really nice trio of Rhode island red bantams in what I can only imagine was a guinea pig ark as it was no more than around 4 foot long and that included 2 small houses at each end with around 2 feet by 3 feet. This is just not acceptable at all and such poor husbandry will doubtless cause sickness,, stress and deaths. He mentioned that he was a bit short of money in which case, he ought to keep less birds and give them all bigger cleaner accommodation. Poultry keepers should aspire to offering the best they can by way of accommodation and not think about what is the least they can get away with.
 Today, as a result of the 140 mile round trip in the car, I have been in a lot of pain because of sitting in one position the whole time, and because of this, I have not been able to get out and plant vegetables. What I have managed to do is clip 2 very hairy dogs, clip nails and plan the building of the polytunnel. The frame which I bought in February cannot be erected. It's unlie any other tunne; I have ever seen with hundreds of different sized and shaped parts to it and no plan of how it should be. The person who sold it to me is no help as she doesn't know what fits where. A professional tunnel erector also scratched his head and went away defeated so the best  option is for me to use what parts I can, and 'fangle' a polytunnel out of what parts I can use.It's all in the planning stage though and nothing will happen if I don't get out on the first fine day and see what parts I can use and what needs to be put to one side.