The chickens have names

At last, we have come up with names for the new chickens.  The darker brown one is called Bonny - named after the mountaineer Chris Bonnington.  She is forever climbing on things and was on the roof of the hen house (followed by the other one), then up on the wall of the run (followed by the other one).  When we let them out she was straight up on the pile of logs, on top of the fence, on the feed bin (each time followed by the other one).  As she explores more and more, you can almost see her eyeing up piles of things thinking 'I could climb that'. So, naming her after Chris Bonnington seemed logical.  Did think of calling the other one xerox because she is just a copier!  Peggy seemed more fitting for a chicken though.  When she was up on the fence while I was hanging the washing out, she had her head in the peg bag, rattling around to see what was in there.  So, Bonny and Peggy it is.  Just have to hope that their feathers stay slightly different colours until their combs grow otherwise we won't be able to tell them apart.

We have also been getting on with some work by the way, though you wouldn't know it from this blog!  Since finishing the screed, we have built the partition stud walls between the corridor/utility room/bathroom and the corner of the oak bedroom and put the door frames in.  We didn't realise how tall the corridor would look - it is the tall side of the lean-to extension and with the partition wall in you don't see the low ceiling at the other side.  The opening from the stone extension to the oak-frame bit is also quite tall and Bob said that, from the doorway, I looked like a midget when I was standing at that end of the corridor.   We have also built the stud wall against the outside walls in the kitchen (for the insulation) and we're in the middle of doing the same in the upstairs.  It's not a straightforward job - as you can imagine, there is not a straight wall or right angle in the whole place and the walls are not even vertical.  So, it is a case of finding the best fit so as not to lose too much floor space and then all the walls will lean back slightly (just have to try to get them to lean back to the same degree so we can fit plasterboard neatly!  It's a good job we're not having a fitted kitchen - don't think Ikea do anything that would fit this house!  We have also put temporary loft boards on the upstairs floor so we can work up there.  That was a really strange moment - we've never seen the kitchen with a ceiling!  We've also done some more 'rustic plastering' on some walls and rebuilt the chimney breast in the upstairs bedroom.  Yesterday the electrician came round and we tried to sort out cable runs, etc.  Don't think it's going to be straightforward and we'll need to put holes through 18" thick stone walls all over the place to thread them through - ditto for water pipes.  Fun, fun, fun!