Ruthie

......we've been removing the other eggs so she is always left with her original "fertilised" egg as I assumed that the dates wouldn't match up for hatching. She seems hell bent on hatching her one egg and although she has got off her egg each day it seems to be for a set time...I guess that she knows how long she can leave it uncovered while she has lunch and stretches her legs! The egg is rarely uncovered for any length of time even then though because the other hens hop in the same box to lay their eggs even though there are other boxes around to lay in. Anyway we're all looking forward to the big day and the new arrival....how bizarre is that!! Will start knitting in anticipation... Cheers Ruthie

Thanks for that....not too sure if the other hens will have fertilised eggs as there are bantams in there with ordinary hens and I'm not too sure if the bantam roosters have ever taken a shine and dared to tackle the other "big" hens. Our last "big" rooster Orlando Bloom got eaten by the fox so the "big" hens are roosterless and now we have been given the bantams I don't think that we could harmoniously introduce yet another rooster....oh the complicated life of a hen house. Its like eastenders! Regards Ruthie

We have one broody hen who has been sat on her ONE egg for over a week now. That's fine, but I always assumed that hens would hatch more than one egg at a time....can anyone shed any light on this please? Also if this egg is eventually hatched is it ok to leave the chick in the hen house with its mother and the other hens or do I need to separate it/them for a while?? Regards Ruthie- hen mother to be...maybe!

Just wondering if anyone knows if there is a local-ish yoga class going on near here. It needs to be in the daytime too.....Hope that someone can help. Thanks Ruth   

My little boy goes to a speech therapist in Lannion who is excellent, (but does not speak English- sorry). Not only has she helped him with his pronunciation or rather mispronunciation of certain sounds she has also helped with his French vocab. He is now more confident at school so making greater progress with his work which is increasing his confidence and so on.... The doctor who did the health check thingy at school suggested that he would benefit from going and a friend recommended the speech therapist that we go to, but there are several in the phone book in the various towns in 22. I guess that if you phone around then you might discover one that speaks English.    Good luck Ruth

Had a very informative visit from the tourist information. They came around- at my request to inspect our gite and to add it to their list of properties. They raised several points about the gite all of which were very informative and will be useful when we renovate our barns and manoir in the future. Issues raised included ceiling heights, balustrade heights on stairs, what equipment should be included (apparently a pressure cooker is a must!!). Anyway enough rambling, the point of my posting is that if you are considering renovating any buildings then it maybe worth approaching the tourist information for a list of specifics in order to get it right- for the French market. The visit was quite thorough and I will get a list of points that will need addressing if they are to give it a rating. All in all it cost     22 euros which I feel was money well spent!! Hope this is of use to potential renovating gite owners!! By the way it was the tourist info in Plestin-Les-Greves in 22. Cheers Ruth

Just to say thank you for all the advice....it's working and Stan has been put to the test as we've been inundated with guests over the half term!! Next problem...how to stop him disappearing when he sees another dog? He just zooms off and I have to chase after him. Thanks again Ruth and Stan

We too would like to acquire a couple of goats. Has anyone got any suggestions where we might actually go to acquire them as I'm at abit of a loss! We too are in 22 between Morlaix and Lannion. Thanks for any suggestions that might be forth coming. Ruth 

Looks like I have to wait for a while then. Most people are pretty understanding. He has a real problem sitting down though because his tail is so busy wagging that it gets in the way. Cheers for the advice though.

Hope that somebody has a few suggestions to help me with my 1 year old labrador cross. He is generally quite obedient, but a little too eager to greet people when they visit. He is very generous with his tongue and jumps all over people which as he is quite big and chunky isn't really acceptable. Some people have said that he will grow out of this behaviour, but I'm not too sure when and if it's not imminent then I would like to do something about it. Cheers in advance Ruthie (and Stan)

Living on the border of 22 and 29 and not too sure how to get a phone book for 29. Checked out pages jaune on line, but I couldn't find anywhere to order one? Any suggestions. Cheers Ruthie

I know that chicken poop is fab on the compost heap and having invested in two very cute ducklings recently I'm curious to know whether duck poop is equally as good on the old heap! Cheers Ruthie

Today I succumbed to the pressure of my two children and the cuteness of two ducklings and now I'm home I'm thinking oh no! We have several hens and they are fine, but I know nothing about ducks and what they need and ponds and.....help. We've got enough space to dig a pond out and I imagine this is a must for birds with webbed feet, but ahhhhhh...any advice greatfully recieved!!! Ruthie

Hi there, My two children go to the local school in Plestin. They have been there for just over a year and my eldest (6) is more-or-less fluent. The younger one (5)loves school, but is less keen to speak French when there. He chatters away with his sister and his friends though! I think perhaps he just needs abit more time. When they both started school I was incredibly anxious, but to my relief they both are very happy to go and we haven't had any tears about school at all. They are in the monolingual class as we thought that it was sufficient for them to learn French, but as they seem to be absorbing the language like a sponge I wonder whether by now they would be fluent in Breton too. The staff at the school have been brilliant and very supportive of my children and me and my partner. I'm sure that your daughter will be fine with whatever you choose and make friends without any problems. Hope this helps. Regards Ruth

Has anyone got any good and tasty recipes for a bread machine (Morphy Richards). I've mislaid the booklet that came with the machine. In the past I used it to make cakes and jam too so any recipe would be welcomed. Cheers Ruthie