Our fourth chicken death and it doesn’t get easier. I was heartbroken to find out that Squash somehow fell ill, and died a day later. I really wish that I could have been there to pat and cuddle her during her final hours.
[Read more…]Goodbye, Chickpea
Oh my dear cheeky girl, Chickpea. What a troublemaker she was, but she will be terribly missed. [Read more…]
Village life
I was never a village person before. I remember being in Hobart years ago and thinking, ‘I could never live in such a small place’. How things have changed. I don’t think I’m ready to give up city life full time, but I definitely now appreciate the charms and positive aspects of small town/village living. [Read more…]
A meat-free house
To all our meat eating friends and guests, sorry, but no more meat consumption at Datscha Fröhden.
We came to this decision after we hosted a team event a few months ago, where a lot of meat was brought and left behind. At first I didn’t want to impose any kind of rules at our house, but after this event, I realised that turning the house into a meat-free house is not a very big ask. Most people only stay for a day or two, and surely not eating meat for this short period of time should be easy. [Read more…]
Living with animals
I never had a pet growing up. Unless you count a couple of goldfish that died because my uncle overfed them while we were away on holidays. [Read more…]
The life and death of Pumpkin, my first chicken love
RIP my girl Pumpkin.
My favourite chicken was eaten last night, by what we now suspect was a fox. I must admit that I cried for quite a while over her death. She was my baby and I really loved her. I know that I am an easy crier, but it is also surprising to see how much I really became attached to her. I feel a bit bad wishing that Diva or Eggplant had been eaten instead, as they are not so friendly and do not enjoy so much human interaction. They are black bovans so their temperaments are different to that of an ISA brown (Chickpea and Pumpkin). [Read more…]
Part time life – part two
A few months on and it hasn’t gotten any easier, splitting our life between two places. I do realise how lucky and privileged I am to have two homes, when some people don’t even have one.
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The challenges of running an open house
Something Artur and I have been discussing a lot these past few weeks and months is how we can sustainably keep Datscha Fröhden (yes, we have a name now) running as an open house. While we love having a lot of guests, having so many (over 20 a month) means that our expenses are dramatically much higher than if it were a house for just the two of us. [Read more…]
Waiting for the rain
It’s funny how now that we have a garden and growing a lot of vegetables, I think and wish for rain. This weekend we waited eagerly for the predicted thunderstorm but it never came. The best we got was some drizzle. And of course we got rained on during the Sternfahrt, which we participated in from Ludwigsfelde to Berlin. We rode around 60km by bike today (and 100km over the past few days) – let’s see what kind of aches and pains I will endure tomorrow.
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Two long weekends
The biggest news of the past two weeks- all four of our chickens are now laying eggs! This means four a day and no more buying eggs again.
We do have some problems with them though – they love eating our flowers too much. Artur’s mum planted many beautiful flowers under this tree, but the chickens have pecked at most of them and like taking dirt baths in the soil here. [Read more…]