March 3, 2009: Weird Chicken Egg
This week one of our chickens produced a very odd 'egg.' Well, we hesitate to use the word egg because it was the oddest thing we have ever seen. We don't quite know what it is and after submitting the photo to various chicken forums we are none the wiser. This isn't a joke! This 'thing' was in amongst several other eggs. We don't know which of the chickens is responsible for this but it is quite clearly an egg that seems to have been incubating within the chicken and become fossilised somehow.

This is the outside of this strange thing. The texture is very rubbery and bubbly. Not sure how else to describe it.

The inside is a mixture of egg shell and/or thin bones, and something that can only be described as the consistency of pâté. Yuk!

Poor chicken getting rid of this but how kind of her to deposit it so neatly amongst the other eggs. As if we wouldn't notice it was different. None of the chickens seem to be any worse for wear. If anyone knows what this is, please let us know.

On the weekend we went up to our friend Rona's place to train on her sheep, have a bowl of soup, and share a few laughs. Rona was showing off her two fine young dogs - Glen and Dell, Angie took Meg, Sioux and Ace, and Kelvin took Blade and Tina. Of course Bailey came along to check out the sticks at Rona's place and found them to her satisfaction. We had a merry old time at Rona's but had to leave all too soon as we can't leave the pups for too long in their kennels.

On the way to Rona's we stopped down at the bottom of the hill at the end of our road to see a miniature steam engine in action. The guy down the road made this little beauty, machining almost all of the parts himself, and it is the second one he has built. This coal-fired steam tractor is a quarter-scale of the original and it works! Very cool. The guy who made this also fixes washing machines! Somehow we think his talent is lost on washing machines. It might not be the most environmentally clean or carbon neutral contraptions but it's a beauty.

There is quite the thriving interest in old steam engines and other things mechanical in this part of the world. Go to any agricultural show here in Wales and you'll see vintage machinery displays tucked away somewhere. Heck, they even went to the World Trial last year. Some things don't appeal to us mere mortals but we have to say, this little beauty did. We just had to stop and take a photo.

Haven't had the dogs out much so far this week as we have been busy working. Why does work have to get in the way of the fun stuff?

Thank you to all those people who have written to tell us their books have arrived. We have received many incredibly nice emails about the book and lots of positive feedback. THANK YOU to you all. We had a laugh the other night as the legendary 83-year-old W.O. (Will) Watkins was over visiting Mike and Nora, and Mike showed him the book. Not content to sit and read Mike's copy of the book, Will, to all of our amazement, purchased his own copy and has not been seen since. (Will has been on the Welsh team 5 times and been in the Supreme Championship too). God help me if there are any mistakes in a pedigree!