Welcome to Techno-Billies

My lovely ladies are off to a new home tomorrow. I was beginning to think that I would be making some large pots of chicken soup before we head off to Spain.  But they deserved a chance so I advertised in our local post office hoping to find a home for at least two or three of them.  I have nine altogether and I thought it would be a tall order to find them all new homes, especially as they don't all lay and I don't know which ones do and which ones do not! Anyway, to cut a long story short, a very kind gentleman in our village has offerred to take them ALL.  He used to have a flock of twenty but is down to five very old girls now and he was quite happy to add my nine to his.   I asked if I could keep them for a little while longer and he was happy for me to do that too.  I will definitely miss them.  It will be strange not to look out the kitchen window and see them darting around the hen enclosure.  Somehow they brought the garden to life and I could spend hours jus

This house selling lark has certainly made me houseproud.  But it's very hard - staying tidy does not come naturally to us, but we must be doing something right because we have had an offer on the house.  Firstly we have had about 8 viewings in just a week - that's very good - and one couple came back for a second viewing.  That's really good.  And then.... they made an offer of £20,000 UNDER the guide price.  I was astonished, and to make me feel better the estate agent said ' oh don't worry about it too much, they don't really expect you to accept, it's just a game'.  What a complete waste of time this game is!  If our house was priced at half a mill then I might understand an offer of 20k less, but it isn't anywhere near those kind of prices.  Yes we know that it needs work, all the rooms need decorating and some of the windows need replacing and the back door too, but we felt that the guide price reflected the condition of the house.  Of cours

Well, here we are.  Our house is for sale!  We have had our first 'viewing' - within a matter of hours of the estate agent leaving.  It is all a bit strange. Firstly - my house is as clean as it has ever been.  And de-cluttered.  We got rid of soooo much stuff on ebay and freecycle and advertised in the post office window.  We did a few minor repair jobs and we painted one bedroom.  I rather like it now.  I don't mean that I want to stay, or have changed my mind, but it's a little bit like being at sea in a small boat with a rising swell.  No sight of land ahead and fast losing sight of land behind us.  We have lived here for 16 years.  That's the longest I have ever lived anywhere.  I guess I really did put down some roots here. My children grew up here, well the younger ones anyway.  Once upon a time our house was full of people... children, pets and an au pair... so noisy, so busy, so hectic, even chaotic, and such fun balanced of course by some of the s