Ok so the birthdays we have this month are as follows: Kelly, Jayde, Alex, Julie and Martin Happy Birthday to you all.

We started off the month by buying 6 more hens from a farm in Banff, the 2nd we put a fence all the way around the flower borders to keep the hens, ducks and storm off them we also put wire mesh up on the other side of the hedging we have to keep storm in the garden because the little blighter keeps escaping. The chicks are now 1 week old and doing really well. The weather so far hasn't been too bad, it's cold but sunny (it's all gonna change).

BIRD FLU arrived in Scotland on the 6th in a village called Cellerdyke in Fife, ok so it sound a long way away from us but it isn't really when you see the area that DEFRA has put an exclusion zone around and a watch area of which the watch area is just 55 mile away from Peterhead at Stonehaven which is just south of Aberdeen, so yes we are a little worried and that will probably put off our next visit to the nursery with the chicks just to be on the safe side. If the time comes and we have it up here our birds will just have to move into the garage, well when we empty it first.

Steve has took up horse riding and loving every minute of it (it gets him out of my way anyway for the day).

We got invited to a 50th surprise birthday party on the 7th, it was a good night but just too long for us so we came home at 11pm, the party was going on until 1 am, with us not drinking like we used too it was a shock to the system and the pair of us aint in a rush to do it again, plus the downside of the night was that we can't smoke in public areas now in Scotland so if you want a ciggie you go and stand out in the cold and freeze to death. We awoke to snow on the 8th but by 10am it had gone (from our garden anyhow). 25th April, ok so since our last update we have been very busy in the greenhouse's and garden mostly trying to keep storm in the garden for now we think we have found all his escape routes, well until he finds another route anyhow. On the 15th we got invited to yet another party this time it was an after wedding party at out friends house Steve & Linda who got married on 9th April in Darlington, so congrats again to you both and all the best for the years to come.

17th and Stormyboy has a very worried look on his face, something to do with the vet (oh no not the vet) oh but yes, i think we forgot to tell him that he was having the snip Oops oh well nevermind it won't hurt honest, anyhow so on the 17th we had a nice peaceful day but a restless night due to stormyboy coming round after his Operation but he's back to his normal self now running riot as usual. All this week Tracy will be helping Shaz do her garden (hope you like it shaz) by the end of the week Tracy was aching but thought it was just all the digging but it wasn't it was the FLU 5 days so far and still counting plus I've passed it on to Steve Oops and he starts his new driving job in the morning on the 26th. The weather has been great for 2 weeks now with hardly any rain so all the plants are starting to come up in the garden buds on the trees and seedlings that need potting on, so that's what trace will be doing for the rest of the month.

28th, Storm had his stitches out today, Steve has enjoyed himself at work, while Tracy has given the house a very good spring clean. On the 27th Steve brought home a load of pallets which we will be taking apart over the weekend for use as a fence and new chicken sheds. Today (Friday 28th) Tracy moved the chicks out of the room into Steve's shed where they will be living for the next 6 weeks or so, that means that they won't be on camera until they go in one of the runs, but i will be doing a photo page of them so you can see how quick they grow. We will be hatching more chicks in the summer.

That's it for April folks See you May