‘If you google “turkey housing” you get some lovely rental properties in Istanbul'

Designing and creating housing for the new arrivals brings plenty of challenges, confesses diarist Corinna Bull

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I can’t believe that it’s autumn already — or, in fact, more or less winter — particularly as I have yet to finish the tasks on my spring to-do list. I wonder if it’s too late? Perhaps they can wait until next spring? After all, I never got around to finishing last autumn’s tasks…

Walking around the holding can sometimes be quite depressing as I see lots of half-finished jobs and even more projects that haven’t even begun. Particularly depressing is the empty pig field, now full of weeds, that I had wanted to sow with wildflowers and instead is just full of thistles that I must tackle before they seed all over our land and that of our neighbour. On days like this I find it helps to invite a friend or relative for coffee as if they haven’t visited for a while they are always amazed by the progress that has been made and kindly don’t point out the unweeded vegetable garden or the bare patches of grass I have been meaning to sow for nine months. Plus, if I show them around outside, they can’t see how little progress we have made in the house!

ALL ABOARD THE TURKEY BUS

The turkeys have now recovered from their M25 adventure (Country Smallholding, November 2019) and have settled well into their new home. They are a firm favourite with my husband, James, for their puppylike curiosity, following him around the garden gurgling and cackling as if they are providing a running commentary on his activities. Our dogs, however, aren’t so sure about the new arrivals. All previous animals have kept a healthy distance as if understanding the distinction between ‘pet’ and ‘livestock’, but the turkeys don’t respect these boundaries and get as close as possible to the dogs, even pecking at their tails as they lay sunbathing on the lawn.