Shed full of surprises

We lovely sunny weather vanished and heavy rain began to fall, flooding roads and leaving swollen rivers in its wake.

It was a good time to try and clear some of the sheds which have never been cleared out for years. The dark and gloomy sheds where nobody ever ventures and There Be Dragons.

It took a bit of doing to go into one of them as I was convinced there was a rat..... there were stacks of woodworm riddled wood and piled up furniture in the shed which is rather fancifully called 'The Garage'.

It turned out that this is the shed where some of the sneakier feral hens have been roosting and hanging out. And leaving mountains of guano.

We found one of the black hens sitting broodily on a nest. She had made her nest on a little cabinet which The Farmer had made at school. She eyed us with a beady eye and a How Very Dare You demeanor.

We had to gently lift the little cabinet and broody hen out and rehome her in a different shed. Easier said than done as she started pecking at our fingers and clucking angrily.

She was put on to the loader and carefully moved but not before making a furious protest.

She was settled in a quiet corner of the big shed and after a last few ranting squawks, settled down to caring for her unhatched brood. Not a single egg broke.

We hauled all the manky wood and finally reached the old furniture. The big rostrum type cupboard which my husband's Great Grandfather had taken with him when he left his job as a headmaster and became a farmer. This piece of furniture sat unmoved in the living room for 102 years until it had to be stored once the ceilings began falling down in the farmhouse.
It was extremely heavy to carry so we shifted it just enough to 'walk' it on to the loader.

"Get in the car" said The Farmer, quietly.

I was a bit surprised and asked him why.

"There is a very big rat in the cupboard".

I grabbed the bairn and flew into the car, wound up the windows and saw the rat run out of the shed. It was big alright, like a fat Jack Russell dog. It had been hiding mere inches away from where we were working and it had given me the complete heebiejeebies.

Unsurprisingly, rat stopped play, it made a change from rain putting a dampener on things.

We left the now empty shed for a couple of days.....

We celebrated Rosie's birthday by heading off to Fife - she wanted to go to Aberfeldy and Fife to celebrate so we took her to all the places she wanted to visit.

The Newburgh bear (which they set fire to this Saturday and I'm not sure why)

The Pillars of Hercules farm shop and tearoom for tea and cakes.

Rosie was fascinated by a very drowsy honey bee which she found a on a plump echinacea.

We headed home under the shelter of an excellent rainbow.

The shed has since been disinfected and washed.

There is one last shed to do but it can wait till next week. God knows what is in it apart from little dishes of rat poison which hopefully help Ratzilla to the Great Rat Nest in the sky.

There are some surprises which you can do without. Fat rat take note.