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Thursday 24 March 2016

STRESSED ME???? ........Yes I am!!!!

17th March
By the end of the day Lobby's Kennel Cough was much improved; she was hardly coughing at all, only with exertion, excitement and stress.
Piglet is visibly putting on size, he's looking positively rotund (though compared to his siblings he's still scrawny!).
The goats are milking well


and giving us a good litre of milk a day
..... So what can I make with it?

18th March
An enforced day off, as it was cold and rainy; I spent time on Amazon and ordered a butter churn and butter paddles - then watch videos of people making goat butter and cheese.
We had several people due to visit, today and over the weekend, cancel due to Lobby's malaise (and I completely don't blame them, I would do the same myself).
Ahhhh, I caught piglet asleep with Lili on the (filthy) dog bed - he woke before I could take a photo.
Lobby is so much better today; such a relief, this evening she was lying in her favorite position (on her back with her legs spread!), yesterday this would have started her coughing, but now .... just relaxed.
I found a brilliant blog (and videos) today, when I was looking for butter making from goat milk, self-sufficientinsuburbia.blogspot.com. I put some goat milk out to start my cheese making culture ....

19th March
Lobby didn't cough at all overnight ........
Haha, Crackling ate his biggest meal ever, at 08.00; then went to sleep - on the dog's bed - Lobby was not amused!!!
Brett convinced me to let Crackling run around loose, outside (I acted like a mother hen!), he of course loved it.


We had hail and rain today, I did some work in the polytunnel.
The cheese culture wasn't ready this morning, I just left it (it will happen).
My goodness Crackling is an angry young pig; 19.00 tonight he started demanding his food (due at 20.00), he was squealing, climbing up my legs, biting (soon stopped that!) and it went on and on until he got his way.

20th March
The third miserable day in a row! We decided to leave the goats in, so we had to move the kittens from their hayrack; we made them a lovely nest in the hay shed, rehoused them and less than two minutes later the cat comes back into the goat shed carrying one! She wasn't happy with the move; however she was better when I put her food in with her.....or so we thought until we put the goats away, and there she was, on the floor in the corner of their shed, with her six kittens - so we picked them up, put them back in the hay shed and locked the door of the goat shed so she couldn't get in.
My homemade cheese culture didn't work, so I reluctantly (I wanted to make it the traditional method) made the decision to buy a mesophilic starter from Amazon (thank you Steph x); I don't want to waste litres of goat's milk by being stubborn. But until it arrives we can still have a go at making halloumi.......
And now I'm looking at a dehydrator .......
Lili was coughing this evening!

21st March
And I heard my first cuckoo of the year .....
We went into Fundao and bought some chicks (Frango) and turkey poults (we've never had turkeys before), we think they're Bronze Turkeys.

We met up with Nicky for coffee (she and Rich are back for a while); she brought us over some bits from the UK - including tea bags, golden syrup, elder, horseradish (to plant) and a flat iron.

22nd March
We're overrun with animals; they come onto the decking and into the kitchen, completely uninvited!
The kids stress me and the nannies (does) when we're doing the milking, jumping on things, knocking stuff over, generally being a nuisance .......
The quinta opposite us has sheep on it atm, this morning two dogs got in with them; one was Pig/Paddy (Chris & Di/Gary's dog) and we thought the other one was Alfie, but Chris denied that when I phoned him. We ended up going to the village shop (Pimenta's) who deduced that it was the owner of the other shop's flock, so we went and informed him. He immediately went off to sort the situation out - we don't know what happened to the dogs or if any sheep were injured/killed.
Piglet is so funny; straight after he's eaten he has a pee and poo (we take him outside for this in an attempt to house train him), then he goes to sleep - on the dog's bed!
He started limping this afternoon; I hope to goodness it's nothing serious.

23rd March
Poor Crackling is still limping or holding his foot off the ground; we can't see any damage to his foot or limb, Brett says he's got very narrow hips and could have a deformity - I'm hopeful it's just a knock.
Alex & Katrina came over so that Alex could help Brett install our new super duper batteries - I gave them lunch and the batteries are working!
Our old batteries are on the decking waiting for the studio/workshop to be completed. Brett tested them - they were all fully charged!!!! We want to see how much they discharge over 24 hours.
Andrew is coming to lunch on Friday, we're going to Lola & Vince Friday evening and M&M are coming to lunch on Sunday (they invited us, but because of animals they're coming here and bringing the meat); so I made some of the easy peasy peanut butter fudge
and I made a chocolate version (with crunchy peanut butter and drinking chocolate).
I'm going to make goat milk ice cream tomorrow, I'm going to try to concoct a Fudge Sundae.
Brett read the batteries when it got dark and again when we went to bed - they had gone down by 30% (just like our other batteries); so now he's thinking it wasn't our batteries at fault, it was something draining them - perhaps the electric fence? Very perplexing ......

24th March
What a shitty morning .......
The dogs were back in with the sheep, this time Alfie WAS with them, and they were terrorizing the sheep. Brett drove round to chase them off,I phoned Chris, who turned up, and went off through our vegetable garden to find his dogs (haven't seen him since).
Georgia didn't want to milk last night and again this morning, she wasn't even particularly interested in her food (and, because she wasn't milked fully last night, she was FULL); so we were worried that something was wrong with her, or that the milking machine was hurting (she had been so good). But I worked it out - she's on heat! So in a couple of days she should be back to normal (and probably pregnant). Despite this we got a whole litre of milk just this morning.

Thursday 17 March 2016

MORE BABIES ....

27th February
Another bitterly cold day; there's lots of snow on the mountains.

28th February
Andrew came to afternoon tea and we 'showed off' all the work we've been doing in the garden.

29th February
Oh dear, we really are rubbish farmers; Georgia's white kid is a male (it is very hairy 'down there'!). The kid is only feeding from one side; so, we had to try to milk Georgia, by hand - easier said than done, in a whole day we managed about 1/4 pint.
Brett carried on with the building, I gardened in the polytunnel (but I've run out of pots) and started weeding the herb bed - there's so much work this time of year.
Then we tried to milk Georgia again; it was easier to waste the milk, letting it go on the ground, rather than try to catch it (she kept kicking the pail over, or putting her foot in it).
We searched the internet for milking machines; they're very expensive in the UK (over £1000), cheaper if you wanted to buy from China! And nothing secondhand. I asked the question, on a smallholding in Portugal site, "where can I buy a goat milker in Central Portugal?" and got the, very helpful, reply "milk by hand" - how did that answer my question?

1st March
What a horrible day!
It all started with a phone call before 8.30 from Marc & Mieke asking for assistance as they needed to change their tyre and their jack had broken; so that was Brett gone for the morning.
I had to try to milk Georgia on my own; who, by now, was totally engourged with a bright red udder, so that was hopeless.
Then ....... Georgia's kid went under the decking; and wouldn't come out, despite his mother's continuous bleating.
Next thing ........ at 11.50 Hazel turned up at the door and told me (yes, I can understand goat!) that her kid was missing too!!! - stressed me????
Thank goodness, at this point, Pam came round for a coffee. We search for the kid, no joy.
Brett came home, I searched again ..... by now I'm saying stupid stuff like "maybe an eagle took it"! I got in a state and was actually questioning why I was here, I was so despondant.
Hoorah, 2 hours 20 minutes after she went missing, Brett found her asleep in the scrub!
Georgia still needed milking; the situation was getting dire, when I suddenly thought of Diane.
Joy of joys, she not only came over to help, she brought a hand milker with her. A real Godsend, we managed to get about a pint of milk off Georgia.
This evening we did yet another search for goat milkers - you only seem to be able to buy hand milkers from America (why?).

2nd March
This morning I succumbed and took some Ibuprofen!
We got 400ml of milk from Georgia this morning, and had about 3/4 litre by the end of the day; the afternoon milking will always be less than the morning one as it's only about 9 hours since she was last milked - milking should be 12 hours apart, that will happen as the days get longer.
We ordered a milker from America, knowing we'll have to pay a large import duty on it! Fortunately we're really enjoying having our own milk and the promise of our own cheese and yoghurt, so it should be a worthwhile purchase.
Pam came round (to the petting zoo) with her guests; the lady is allergic to cow's milk, so I was able to give her some goat milk.
Brett's building work is going 'great guns'; I can stand in my studio and visualise it now.
We, again, had two bleating mother goats when the babies did exactly the same as yesterday - today I didn't stress out!
Tomorrow I'm going to make goat milk cheese; I'm going to use nettles for the rennet (Diane told me about it, so I read up on it on the internet!).

3rd March
Today we bought a secondhand water pump (for our 'new' well) from an English neighbour who is getting rid of all her mechanised tools in preference to hand tools (I'm busily doing the opposite!).
Brett took a day off from the build and rotovated all our vegetable areas with the tractor.
I had a cooking day ..... First I made my stinging nettle rennet (a bucket of washed nettles, put in a pot on stove, cover with water, add 1 teaspoon of salt, bring to boil for 10 minutes, strain through muslin).
Lola gave us some wonderful olives from Italy, flavoured with sugar, mustard and lemon juice - today I made my version; pit about 100 Turkish style black olives, add 2 dessertspoons sugar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, juice of one lemon. Put in jar, making sure olives are under liquid.
Once the nettles were cold I stripped them from the stems and made nettle soup (with chicken stock, onion, garlic, potato and milk); it's actually very tasty.
My goat cheese maki was an unmitigated failure!!!!!! I followed the recipe, but the nettle rennet didn't make curds and whey, so I added lemon juice (nope), then vinegar (no), then I heated it up more (not even close), I just couldn't get the milk to split - I've made cheese, with cow's milk, plenty of times (with lemon juice) it worked everytime! What a waste of two pints of goats milk, at least the pigs will eat it.
Talking of pigs; when we came home at lunchtime the sow had built herself a nest; at 5.30 she had her first piglet bt 10.30 she'd only had three piglets (she should have been having them every 15-20 minutes). Brett made the decision to examine her (internally) but he couldn't feel anymore inside her; so we had to leave her (she's not straining, rapid breathing, bleeding or anything else worrying, she just has a smaller than average litter - you don't call a vet out for that!) but we still went to bed worrying.

4th March
What a stressful night; worrying and checking on the pigs - not much sleep going on AND THEN at 5.00 Brett went out to check and came back with a piglet that was out of the nest, cold, not moving - looking dead!
We wrapped it in a towel, on top of a hot water bottle, drizzled warm goat milk, laced with aguadente, down it's throat and took it back to bed with us for the rest of the night. By 7.30 it was up on its feet and looking for food - very fiesty, so fingers crossed it'll survive.
Brett made my coffee this morning, I took a swig ...... omg he'd made it in the mug with the leftover aguadente in it, disgusting!
We tried putting the piglet back in the nest,

but it didn't feed; it's now living in a box in front of the range and being fed every 1/2 hour (as it'll only take between 10-15ml at at time).
Lili has a new job, she is .....'Kid Finder General'; the nanny goats keep arriving at the house telling us they've lost their kids, usually in the scrub behind the studio. Lili is brilliant at sniffing them out and she loves all the praise she gets when she finds them.
This evening Lili and Looby had a bit of a fight; Lili gets jealous when we take notice of other animals and she takes it out on Looby - tonight Looby retaliated, Brett had to pull them apart .... Lili is now sulking!
Piglet, who Brett has christened Crackling, is becoming quite active and strong; he's still not eating much at each feed, which means he needs feeding regularly (even through the night!).

5th March
Brett did the midnight feed and managed to get piglet to feed 30ml from a saucer. I did the 2.30 (another 30ml), 6.45 (40 ml) and 8.00 (a whopping 45ml and I didn't even think he'd be awake!). I so hope we can get him back with his mother today - I'm knackered!!!
I helped Brett milk the goats, before I left for language class; we are very grateful for all the milk Georgia is providing, it literally was a life saver for Crackling.
Hoorah, when I got home Brett had reunited Crackling with his siblings and had photos that certainly looked like he was managing to feed from his mother (fingers crossed), of course we will keep an eye on him.

6th March
Another broken night; Brett checked the piglet when he walked the dogs last night, he was squashed under the sow - tongue hanging out, panting ........
He brought him in, gave him milk, he was starving - obviously he hadn't been feeding! So he's now back in a box in front of the stove. I had to get up several times (Brett claims he doesn't wake up!), to feed the pig (warmed goat milk), change his hot water bottle and make up/relight the fire.
So now we have two goats to milk; Hazel's kid has decided to favour one side too -unfortunately neither of the goats enjoy being milked (even though they must feel tons better afterwards), so it's a bit of a battle. Georgia isn't too bad, as long as she'a being fed, but Hazel fights us all the way.
Crackling survived a metre fall today - he managed to climb out of his box (which is off the floor to get maximum heat from the stove)! I didn't realise pigs could climb;
now he's barricaded in; but I daren't leave him for too long so the vine pruning, which I had planned to do, was postponed and I finished weeding the herb bed (now all I have to do is keep the chickens off it!).
And now climbing out of his box has become his new game .......
Brett was cultivating the polytunnel, ready for planting up with early beans, when a cable snapped on the new cultivator; bloody great, that means six weeks or so getting it mended!
Tomorrow I'm going into Fundao with Pam.

7th March
I gave Crackling his morning feed, helped Brett milk the goats and then turned my back on the quinta and went to Fundao with Pam.
The day was a success; I came home with rennet for cheese making (however I now have to source 'culture' as well) and traps for the olive flies that make our large eating olives unusable (plus as lots of food!).
Brett has started putting the glass blocks in the studio, it's looking really great.
Brett's working for Annika for the next couple of days, which means I have to milk the goats on my own (slightly apprehensive!).

8th March
When I did my night feed the fire was out - I managed to fill the house with smoke trying to relight it!
I managed to milk both goats quite successfully, on my own; Georgia, bless her, started dripping as I led her to the decking (she gets fed as she's being milked), Pavlov's goat!!! She gave a whopping 500ml this morning; Hazel only needs to have a bit taken to relieve the tightness of her udder.
Our kitchen is a tip! So, instead of all the gardening jobs I was going to do (pruning vines, planting potates, sowing onions seeds), I tidied, cleaned and cooked.
First though I had to make Crackling an outside run, he wants to run around the kitchen floor and I worry about him getting stuck behind the range, the cupboards, freezer etc. I put his bed out there with two hot water bottles, so he didn't get cold - of course he wanted to sleep in the open where it was only 66 degrees (he's supposed to be at 90).

Crackling is taking a good 100ml each feed, and his meals are 3 hours apart now - I can't wait for the night feeds to stop!
We had a litre of milk today ...

9th March
Dull, gloomy and cold ......
Crackling seems to have lost his appetite, he didn't finish his meal first thing this morning, although he was active, but his next meal he hardly touched and he wants to sleep all the time. The only information I can find on the internet suggests that he's too cold, he needs to be kept at 90 degrees ...... the internet suggests heat lamps and heat pads, unfortunately not feasible on solar - so it's hot water bottles and stove (it's very hot in our kitchen!) - but he's still not eating!
As the day progressed he got worse and worse; he wasn't moving, his eyes were shut and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth. Then he started heating up, by the evening he had a raging fever.  So is it because he had none of his mother's colostrum, isn't getting enough iron or just because he's a runt and doomed to die? At midnight we were absolutely convinced he was going to die; we decided we had nothing to lose by giving him antibiotic. We had some left over from when Lili was spayed, she had a 1/4 tablet dose, so as he's much smaller than she was, we gave him 1/16 of her dose (1/64 of a tablet).
Then I got up for 1/2 hour, every hour, through the night to feed him (a syringeful of warm goat's milk), change his hot water bottles and make up the fire.

10th March
At 7.00 he peed on my foot (a good sign) and at 9.30 he ate a small meal unaided. He improved throughout the day, and now we are quietly optimistic. Oh my goodness he squealed and wriggled when I gave him his antibiotics (syringed straight into his mouth) this evening, he's a completely different pig to yesterday.  I think/hope we might have saved Crackling's bacon (for the time being)!!!

11th March
Happy birthday Karen xxx
We picked up Diane & Thomas's heat lamp, our kitchen is too blooming hot with the stove on all day!
Oh bloody hell, Crackling's appetite has diminished;  before he was ill he was eating a good 90-100ml of milk at each feed. Yesterday he only managed 50ml but he was having a teaspoon crushed piglet pellets mixed in, today he only ate 30ml (plus the pellets); I have a horrid feeling he's constipated, his belly is getting bloaty looking - Brett gave him a small dose of olive oil, fingers crossed (again!).
Of all our animals our most fertile one is the cat.....SIX kittens, she had them in the goat's hay rack!
Our milker arrived from America today; there was a card in our post box to say we had a parcel at the Post Office in Penamacor, with 53,20€ to pay (import tax).
Our milker is easier to use than Diane's, it doesn't need pumping, as it's electric - another litre of milk today.
This evening M&M took us to the 'skewer' restaurant to say thank you fot Brett's help last week. The guy offered us 'menu de dia', loin of pork, which we all went for - unfortunately it wasn't very good and the vegetables were lukewarm, all in all rather disappointing.

12th March
Brett did the night feeds, so I got a full night's sleep - I feel so much better today.
Brett carried on blocking.
Crackling pooed twice today, hoorah, and is now eating about 60-70ml of milk per feed.
It was soooooo hot in the polytunnel ......
Haha (I'm laughing atm!) Crackling had found his voice, when he's hungry he squeals very loudly - I expect it will get annoying very quickly, but atm it's very funny!

13th March
I only fed Crackling once in the night (he wasn't too happy, but I was).
Our new milker isn't as fast as Diane & Thomas's one (I think perhaps I'm turning it off too soon as I don't want to hurt them), the goats are getting used to being milked now and, as long as they are being fed, stand still for us.
As we were going to Andrew's for lunch Brett did some maintenance atuuf around the quinta and I made some fudge - the simplest recipe ever!!!!
PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE (not for people with a peanut allergy!)
1 cup of peanut butter
1 cup of butter (how do you measure hard butter accurately in a cup?)
1 tspn vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
~ heat peanut butter, butter and vanilla until well mixed
~ stir in icing sugar
~ leave to set in an 8"x8" container, lined with baking parchment, about 4 hours
...... As I didn't have 4 hours until lunchtime I stuck it in freezer for 1/2 an hour, worked a treat
~ cut into small squares, delicious and very rich
We had a lovely afternoon at Andrew's quinta (C&D were there too); we sat in the sunshine, ate, drank, relaxed and gossiped. Unfortunately we had to get back for Crackling after 3 hours (Martine and Paul had just arrived).
Crackling ate his biggest meal since he was ill and then proceeded to play with Lili, like a puppy(I've given him some cardboard boxes/tubes to play with in his box).
Not only has Crackling found his voice, he has a real attitude; when he wakes up he demands to come out of his box and, if that doesn't happen, he starts jumping up the side of the box, 20" high, in a bid to escape (his trotters can nearly reach the top but Brett assures me he can't get out). Then, once out, he stomps around the room demanding food! It's funny, for the moment.

14th March
Brett did the late feed at 01.00 (he stays up for it) and I didn't feed him again until 6.30 (and I went back to bed afterwards!), so he's nearly going through the night.
Milking the goats was easier today (if you don't factor in the kids using you as a climbing frame and eating your hair!); we watched the video for the milker last night and we hadn't been using enough vacuum. Georgia gave a good 500ml first thing (and her udders look much better for it); Hazel we only take a token, to get her used to being milked, we take a lot when she's full on one side/lopsided. Basically we're getting better at it and so are the goats; the milker was definitely a worthwhile purchase. Next job, for Brett, is building a milking parlour!
Brett continued building and I did some work in the polytunnel, but it was too hot for a long stint and started pruning the vines (I know I'm far too late).
I took Crackling for a walk wearing a dog's collar; it was miles too big for him and he squealed as if I was slaughtering him, as I put it on him, but he actually enjoyed the walk about.
I have to try to keep the dogs outside when he's being fed (1) as they follow him around licking dribbled milk off his face (2) they are convinced once he leaves his bowl it's theirs, but mainly (3) he's more interested in playing with Lili than eating his meal!

15th March
06.30 we were woken by the inverter alarm going off - Crackling's heat lamp is 250 Watts.
We had to milk the goats using the generator (fortunately the noise doesn't scare them).
C&D looked after Crackling while we went into CB; we had some stuff to buy but mainly to take rotovator back for repair. As usual we ran out of time ...... But not before we had bought a potato plough (well that's what I call it); it's a plough, on a long handle, which we can use to make the furrows to plant potatoes in.

16th March
Today we planted our potatoes (about two sacks), with the help of our new tool (potato plough) - it was still back breaking work!
I'm a trifle worried about Lobby (Lili and Crackling); she has had a hacking cough, on and off all day. C&D think that 'their dog' Pig or 'Gary's' dog Paddy (same dog!) has Kennel Cough. I looked up the symptoms - hacking cough, incubation period - up to 6 weeks (she was on heat 4-6 weeks ago when Pig/Paddy was wooing her!), it's caught by breathing the same air as an infected dog - oh yes, and pigs can catch it! Brett thinks I'm over reacting; I really, really hope I am.

17th March
Happy St Patrick's Day!
Lobby was hacking for most of the night; we're going to video her and leave her in the car when we go to the vet (don't want to pass it on).
At 5.30p.m. Crackling will be TWO weeks old; we honestly didn't think he would make it.
3/4L of milk from the goats first thing (most ever for morning milk), we're getting a good litre per day.
Our last lamb was born this morning; black with a white dot on her head.
We didn't take Lobby to the vet as she's already vaccinated (and it's up to date) for Kennel Cough; research on internet suggests she'll just get a mild dose (try telling her that!) - she'll go to vet if she gets worse, atm she's ok apart from the dreadful coughing. Lili is vaccinated too, so fingers crossed she stays fit.
Brett continued blocking; the next course he'll be putting in the joists for the mezzanine.
I used the seeder to sow six long rows of parsnips and nine of onions - we eat a lot of onions!
We have such demanding animals; the dogs, the runt and now Georgia, turning up IN the kitchen to tell it was time to milk her (her motivation, of course, is food).