Condemned!

My plan for the past 2 weeks has been to spend the easter holiday rebuilding and lovingly making the 5th shed into the boys' all new, super and billion dollar den...

Marched out today at 11am armed with pruners, gloves, heavy coat, Alfie and huge amounts of vim and vigour...The sun shone and we went to work. We cut back every last bit of bramble, we hacked at every lose hanging branch and then we were ready to attack the shed.

Alf has put a lot of thought into the final design and I was beyond excitement at being able to create the perfect hang out.

When we opened the door the 5th shed appeared quaintly full of bits of wood and spiders webs and so I stood at the door and began throwing out all of the wood I could see no future use for - carefully to the side went a door and a rather nice thick bit of wood that I could see making a wonderful shelf- the rest began the perfect bonfire pile.

Alfie - who is slightly nearer the ground than me - kept saying as we ploughed through the wood, that it smelt. I, of course put this down to a fussy 6 year old and told him I would continue alone whilst he fought off the dinosuars and prehistoric animals that were surrounding us. Off he went - large stick in hand growling and also measuring the rain water (a scientist at heart).

A fair pile down, I was congratulating myself that I was making Jeffers the best bonfire ever and my first born son the den of dreams - when I have to say it did start to wiff a bit...

Looking down - I found the chicken feeder, then the metal feeder, the beginnings of a wasp's nest and then the biggest pile of chicken yuk...

I bravely fought on thinking 'bleach will sort this' and decided to just take out the last remaining scraps of wood so we could really get a feel for the dimensions and possibilities

Ever the brave mother, I then screamed and ran as two rather sweet bunnies came leaping out of the stack right at me. Caught myself laughing at my own patheticness but nevertheless...

The den is now condemned to a quick and fiery end.

Chicken pooh, wasps and a rabbit warren are slightly too much for me...

I have found a good company down the road that come and build you a den to order. I am rethinking this bonanza and may have to hand this over to professionals.