Sourdough disaster

I spent two days lovingly kneading, proving, re-kneading and caring for my first attempt at sourdough bread and all looked well until they were shaped into loaves and left to prove for the last time:



Disaster!!

 I scooped up the gloopy mess and threw it into some loaf tins, which seemed to do the trick. The resulting loaves are quite tasty, if a little crunchy. Will probably make good breadcrumbs if nothing else :) And the chickens like it too.



Must replace the breadmaker I think. Lazy perhaps, but at least they will be cooked properly. I don't have the time or the will to spend two days making bread again...

Neglect

I am guilty of complete neglect - not of the garden or chickens, but of this blog. Life just gets in the way of the things I would like to spend more time on!

Lots has happened in and around the veg garden and with our flock - I will attempt to remember some of the highlights and write about those at a later date...

In the meantime, we have a bad case of bullying and I suspect our Speckledy is the ringleader. We had to move one of our last ex-bats to the Chicken Hospital whilst her cuts and scabs heal. We do let her out every day for exercise (they go off their legs very easily if confined), and this is what I saw from the back door yesterday:

She was coming to pay me a visit :) 

I would have let her into the kitchen but Meg, our Greyhound, gets very nervous when the hens look at her 'the wrong way', so I left Ginge outside and she happily scratched and pecked away for ages, until Hubby found her in the alpine garden. Back to the Chicken Hospital she went.

We will try to reintroduce her back to the flock when she is a little stronger.