tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52920021244679377722024-03-14T12:38:53.659+00:00Smiths on tour at lastSandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.comBlogger383125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-42704880485844764772019-02-17T16:33:00.000+00:002019-02-17T16:33:14.979+00:00NEW BLOG .....This blog is no longer being updated, I have started a new blog (the title is self explanatory! ) ......<br />
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homesteadinginportugal.blogspot.comSandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-13605289357850478462018-06-24T13:12:00.000+01:002018-06-24T13:28:51.402+01:00BETTER LATE THAN NEVER ...<div align="left">
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<span style="color: black;">3rd April</span></div>
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We're going to be pretty sociable for the next few days and for some reason I seem to be catering for each event! So today was a big catering binge:</div>
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<span style="color: black;">This evening Erd is coming round (Nicky & Taliss are in Lisbon) for dinner and Scrabble - roast pork, brocolli, baked sweet potatoes and (Brett has requested) Yorkshire puddings.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Tomorrow we've been invited to Alex's birthday BBQ - I'm marinating belly pork and making old fashioned bread pudding with stale sourdough bread.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Thursday we're going round to Vince and Lola's, so that they (Brett and Vince) can look at my generator - I have pork ribs par-cooked and for marinating in the fridge, I'll make a salad tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">And on Friday we've invited our new neighbours (Noelia & Lief) to lunch - to ring the changes we'll have roast leg of lamb with wraps, salad and taziki.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">It rained a lot today but I did manage to pot our new citrus trees up into big terracotta pots - I discovered that the trees were obviously bare rooted (much cheaper to buy) last week, the compost just fell away from the roots, what a rip off!!!l</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">6th April</span></div>
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Tuesday evening was fun - mainly because I beat Brett and Erd at Scrabble.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Wednesday's BBQ was not a wash out, although we did have to retreat undercover at one point.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">There was so much food (mainly meat!). Our pork was very disappointing; it was very undercooked and therefore tough - it responds best to long slow cooking (so perhaps not the best thing to take to a barbecue!!!).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Thursday was a success; Brett and Vince stripped down my generator, diagnosed the fault (so now we have to source the spare parts). Meanwhile Lola and I prepared lunch and drank wine! Vince has loaned me his generator until I get mine mended.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Today Noelia, Lief and Lianze (nearly 4 years old) came for a lazy lunch; we ate outside in the sunshine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">And now we're socialised out!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Brett has managed to finish pruning the olive trees in the vegetable garden - it makes such a difference to the look of the place.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Looby is really getting on our nerves. She spends the whole day trying to escape the quinta and the evenings whining and pacing. We know it isn't her fault, but it's still bloody annoying - only another 2 weeks to go ...</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">7th April</span></div>
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Nicky and Tallis are back from Lisbon. They and Erd came around this morning, stayed for lunch, nearly stayed for dinner, but we're eating too late these days (after the animals are away) - so another day of socialising!</div>
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<span style="color: black;">8th April</span></div>
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Hoorah, actually did some work in the polytunnel - potted on nearly 100 tomatoes and sowed a few trays of seeds. We'd like to sow some seeds directly (winter squash etc) but the ground's far too wet.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">I made 2L of goat's milk into Cajeta (Mexican caramel sauce) - five hours simmering on the range. It's delicious on ice cream.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">9th April</span></div>
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We went to the vet tonight and got told that we have to register our animals (goats and sheep). It's been on our 'to do' list for a while - it's now moved to the top of the list!!!</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Bloody Looby; all evening long pacing and whining ...</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">11th April</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">I'm gradually potting on all my seedlings but now I've run out of trays. Yesterday I potted nearly 100 sweet peppers (5 or 6 different varieties).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Today I made cheese: Chevre, Halloumi and Ricotta.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We should have loads of milk tomorrow - we castrated Lucy's kids (ouch!!!).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">12th April</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We've had loads more rain, consequently gardening has ground to a halt.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">And we're getting so much milk I've started making Cheddar (needs 10L so cheese making every third day) - I'm already bored with it (I hate having to steralise all the equipment)!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">13th April </span></div>
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We've been really worried about Lily; she had a lump (which is getting bigger daily) behind her jaw (lymph gland?). So today, as we were going into CB to pick up Helen from the train station, we took her to the vet (whilst fearing the worst). We're so relieved; it turned out to be an infected salivary gland - she's on a course of antibiotics for the next eight days.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Saturday 14th April</span></div>
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We had a daytime craft meeting for a change. Lola's friend, Titi, came to teach us macrame. I made a necklace (first 'caging' a heart shaped stone I carved ages ago) and started a bracelet. It was a lovely day; Titi was a very patient and good teacher, we had lunch on the decking and relaxed in the sunshine.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Brett is doing lots of gardening atm; it's looking very tidy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">4.00 found us at Bar do Clube with the usual suspects (plus Helen and Richie).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">15th April </span></div>
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Helen and I finished our bracelets and then did some printing with the Gelli plate. We're going to make cards for the carboot next Saturday.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">16th-18th April </span></div>
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Lots of fun in the studio, mainly making cards.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">W</span><span style="color: black;">e had a fermentalist meet up at Nicky's. Lola instructed us in the making of a fermented Baba Ganoush (it won't be ready for two weeks).</span></div>
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We took a selection of cards with us; (1) to show off! (2) to ask opinions on pricing (one of the hardest parts of selling artwork). The general consensus was no less than 2.50€ each!</div>
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19th April </div>
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A trip to Spain; the market was rubbish - no fabric to buy - we bought onions (large white salad onions<span style="color: black;"> and strawberries</span>)<span style="color: black;">. However the day was not lost, we met up with Lola and Nicky, Erd, Tallis and Erd's mum for a tapas lunch (Erd treated us, as a thank you for the goat kids we're giving them).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Then everyone (bar Lola) came back to our quinta for the afternoon!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">20th - 26th</span></div>
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Helen picked up a nasty chest infection/cough (on the plane we think) - which she kindly shared with us!</div>
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<span style="color: black;">We didn't do the carboot; inclement weather (cold with heavy showers) again, which would have ruined our cards - I'll try again in May.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We were supposed to go to Fundao on Monday (to buy veg plugs and ducklings) but we all felt too ill so that was aborted.</span></div>
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I roped Helen into helping me design, and make, my hat for Lily's wedding.</div>
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We <span style="color: black;">started</span> by making flowers with wire, wood glue and nail polish! The wire was bent into a flower shape, dipped in glue (to fill in the petals) and, when dry, painted with nail polish - it looked easy on the video!!! Helen persevered with that method, I, wanting instant gratification, used tissue paper and glue to make my petals - after several days we had a good selection of flowers.</div>
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Lola had loaned me a couple of hats to adorn but they were too heavy for our flower creation so ... I fashioned a cloche hat shape out of wire, wrapped it with material, attached the flowers and some beads (it's not finished yet but it's looking very promising - definitely unique).</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Then Helen went home ...</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">27th</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Feeling really crap!!! I woke up at </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="tel:0353">03.53</a></span><span style="color: black;"> (and never went back to sleep). I'd showered by </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="tel:0600">06.00</a></span><span style="color: black;">.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">We had to process some chickens; the cockerels are fighting and doing some real damage to one another (we had to isolate two). These birds are really aggressive (they bite humans too), they're usually very docile. We had our largest bird yet - 11lbs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">On Tuesday (three days ago) I had a message from Duarte " I know you don't sell sourdough bread, but it's my family get together this weekend and I would really love to have five of your loaves for our picnic"!!! I had to immediately revive my starter, Wednesday evening I made the dough, let it prove overnight, then he came and picked up the uncooked dough (as I didn't have time to do anymore), he has to knock it back, shape it, leave it to double in size and cook it - I didn't charge him! He came bearing gift ... Shitakii mushrooms, tasters of three different Irish cheeses made by his friend (with cardoon as rennet), and some of his olives.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Andrew had his annual picnic at his quinta; which would have been fun had we been feeling better.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">28th</span></div>
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Took the chickens across to Vince & Lola's (to put in our freezer).</div>
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<span style="color: black;">The bits for my generator have arrived.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Brett gardened, whilst I suffered and played with my hat!</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">29th</span></div>
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Still suffering, but had to make cheese ...</div>
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<span style="color: black;">30th April</span></div>
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Off to Fundao to buy vegetable plugs</div>
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<span style="color: black;">P.m. planted:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">150 x onions</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">42 x peppers</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">40 x sweet potatoes</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">50 x tomatoes</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">21 x aubergine</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Bearing in mind I'm also growing all of these (bar onion) from seed in the polytunnel - these are to give our harvest a head start.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">1st May </span></div>
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Beltane Blessings (as we say around here!) ...</div>
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<span style="color: black;">It's that time of year when our fridge is FULL of milk products: bottles/jars of milk (obviously), kefir, buttermilk, clabbered milk, (we have yoghurt but bought from Lidl!), whey and then we have the cheese: Halloumi, Chevre (fresh and maturing) and blocks of Cheddar-type (at various stages of maturity).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The sow had her piglets - SEVEN (which is a record for her) however only ONE is still living - four weren't fully formed and she's already managed to squash two! She really is a rubbish mother, totally unaware of her offspring.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">2nd - 4th</span></div>
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I finished my hat, made a brooch and have even started my dress.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">Nicky & Erd were going to have our pair of Erzgebirge goats but decided (after several weeks of pen building and choosing names) that they weren't ready for them (slightly put out); so today they went up for sale on the Penamacor page.</span></div>
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Brett has stared building our outside kitchen.</div>
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<span style="color: black;">4th June!!!!!</span></div>
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Well my blog hasn't been updated for a couple of months (had a few complaints!) so I'll post this and try to do better from now on!</div>
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24th June</div>
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<span style="color: black;">I've </span><span style="color: black;">been trying </span><span style="color: black;">to upload </span><span style="color: black;">photos since </span><span style="color: black;">the </span><span style="color: black;">4th </span><span style="color: black;">June but for some reason I can't. I've googled the problem but either the solution doesn't work or I can't understand </span><span style="color: black;">the </span><span style="color: black;">jargon. So I'm posting my blog without photos.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Any advice (in easy </span><span style="color: black;">to </span>understand language) gratefully received!</div>
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-4722376165572822382018-04-02T22:20:00.000+01:002018-04-02T22:20:05.821+01:00MACON & MAM!!!28th February<br />
Well my butter making didn't work! First of all I tried using my (virgin) manual butter churn - by the time my arms had given up nothing had happened. So I thought I'd use my moulinex mixer - the cream frothed up to about four times it's original volume but no hint of butter! I think perhaps my cream was tainted with milk? I need a cream separator.<br />
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9th March<br />
The wells are more or less full, the land is saturated, our track is getting squelchy (soon it'll be undrivable) and still it rains.<br />
Apparently totally annual rainfall for our area averages at about 1000mm (that's a meter in one whole year), we've had 600mm in the last 12 days!!!!! Elise and Yurk (two separate neighboring quintas) are both flooded.<br />
Our vegetable garden is under water, so it's a chore to pick the brassica (the sprouting brocolli is still going strong and more cabbages are ready to harvest).<br />
Yesterday our Fermentalists meeting was at Mount of Oaks (MOO, a local community). I was super excited because I wanted a tour of their place - it was too wet! I made an orange (ours) and red pepper salsa - looks interesting and tasty, I think it will end up quite runny like a sweet and sour chili sauce.<br />
19 people attended the meeting (plus Taliss and Leonie), the group is getting rather big. Me, Nicky, Lola and Jo came from our area (it was an hour's drive to MOO).<br />
I have a Mother's day card and present from Hen (& Indi) - I won't open it until Sunday.<br />
Update on mother's day present: Hen contacted me to see if it had arrived. I said 'yes' but I hadn't opened it; he said I could if I wanted too ...... wow, it's fabulous, a garland made from recycled metal, in the shape of leaves - when the rain stops I'm going to put it up on the decking - thank you Henry & Indi Xxx.<br />
Tonight we had another storm (thunder & lightening) and tomorrow storm Felix arrives (Red warnings) .........<br />
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10th March<br />
Today we pulled two vans out of the mud (Pete & Alan's), last week it was Sophie's people carrier and last month Hatti's van - our 4 wheel drive truck is in demand with all this wet weather.<br />
I put my mother's day present up .......<br />
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It 'tinkles' in the wind ......</div>
We're getting a little bit bored now!!!!! I played in the studio this afternoon - I'm thinking of making some cards to sell at the carboot.<br />
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11th March<br />
Happy Birthday Karen. Xxx<br />
Ooooh goody, it's raining! It's getting a bit boring now ......<br />
We took a walk down to the river; it was raging. But it had obviously been nearly 2m higher on Friday (we could tell by the debris trapped in the branches of the trees).<br />
This afternoon I carried on with my card printing .......<br />
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The marbled paper I made years ago when we lived in Wales.<br />
The tomatillo seeds I sowed have germinated in the hundreds rather than tens! So I'm going to pot some seedlings up and try selling them at the carboot. I spent the evening making paper pots (from supermarket flyers) so I don't have to get rid of my pots (I felt very smallholderish!).<br />
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12th March<br />
Last week I decided that as I was milking Lucy once a day I might as well milk first thing and milk Jelisa too (with views of cheese making). Day (1) I had 2.5L, day (2) Lucy's kids had found her left udder and she didn't need milking. However today Jelisa came out bursting - I took 2L off her and 1L off Lucy (so perhaps cheese making is back on, I only need 5L per batch for soft cheese).<br />
No rain today so we did some outside jobs (potting on (me) and mucking out (Brett)).<br />
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13th March<br />
Another 3L milked this morning. I don't have enough for cheese as we're using it in our tea/coffee etc.<br />
After six months of a persistent dry cough (I haven't had a full night's sleep in months) the doctor tells me it's the pills I'm taking!!!! She's given me a new prescription, fingers crossed.<br />
After years of buying crappy meat slicers and slicing ham or bacon as thinly as possible by hand we might have access to a proper meat slicer. Lola has a Portuguese friend who wants to sell one (50€), it sounds very promising as it weighs 20kgs - we're going to view it tomorrow.<br />
Erd came round this afternoon to help Brett service our truck (he has ramps). It's purring now, job well done!<br />
I continued making paper pots .........<br />
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14th March<br />
No milk this morning!!!!<br />
What a bargain!!!! The meat slicer is a proper heavy duty one. It might be old but the blade is still sharp (scarily so), it sliced our bacon thinly, no trouble at all - very happy, it's a quality piece of kit.<br />
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Proper bacon ...</div>
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17th March<br />
Happy St Patrick's Day!<br />
I didn't go to the carboot. The weather has been inclement all week and rain was forecast; it actually didn't rain while the carboot was on but it was bitterly cold - only three stallholders turned up.<br />
Sara & Greg turned up at lunchtime with my Amazon parcel (Kilner jars), the courier had dropped them off at Bar do Clube.<br />
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18th March<br />
Brett off on a bike ride ..........<br />
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2nd April<br />
Happy Easter!!!<br />
Well my blog writing has gone to pot! I don't know why, I used to write it religiously, every evening after dinner (maybe it's because we're eating and therefore sitting down later?).<br />
So what has happened in the last 2 weeks?<br />
We have 'processed' two large rams and our big boar. We are experimenting and making Macon and Mam (mutton bacon and ham) as well as making bacon and ham (we're going to build a smoker) - you can tell we're still very happy with our meat slicer!<br />
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Macon ...</div>
Vince and Lola are housing our big freezer in their shed (we can't run two off the solar) which is brilliant.<br />
On Thursday Brett and Vince are going to look at my generator (fingers crossed they can fix it in time for Helen's visit, 13th April).<br />
Today we went to CB and met Mark for lunch. Hopefully he's back in Portugal for a while. A while back I was moaning (on the blog) about not being able to get cotton easily - Mark's mum sent me a box of thread (thank you Mark's mum xxx), I'm really chuffed.<br />
The weather had improved last week (it's been raining all over Easter). We went to Fundao market and bought a couple of lemon trees and a lime tree (our third attempt at growing these). These ones will be kept in pots on the decking until they have matured a bit. We're always very enthusiastic about our garden in the spring.<br />
Brett has pruned all the olive trees in the vegetable garden. It is looking very well kept ..... and still the brasiccas are giving us vegetables (red/green/white cabbages, calabrese, brocolli, kale and chard (I know chard isn't a brassica!).<br />
Nicky & Tallis came round last Sunday (whilst Brett and Erd were on a bike ride). We picked wild greens from the quinta - chickweed, hen bit, dead nettle, yellow wood sorrel, salad burnet plus a few herbs, to make into a wild herb omelette - delicious. The left over herbage was made into pesto.<br />
Poor old Lobby is on heat, it makes her so restless. She's lying outside in the dark ...<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-37545007947880717722018-02-28T16:31:00.000+00:002018-02-28T16:31:13.047+00:00WE NEED RAIN ...........1st February<br />
Happy Birthday Steph! Xxx<br />
Brett's been working at Jo's this week (plus his bike ride every Sunday) so I've been on my own for a few days - it makes me realise I would hate to live alone!<br />
Today I decided to do some (much needed) weeding; nearly 2 hours later, a wheelbarrow full of weeds (mainly grass), but hardly anything to show for it - though you can actually see one row of carrots now.<br />
I sat outside in the sun to eat my lunch - it was bloody freezing!!!! The sun was shining but there was a bitter wind blowing from the north - I soon came in!<br />
Next week I'm hosting our fermentation group (The Fermentalists) so I've been making a few ferments for our taste and share session. I've so far got ....... ginger ale, sourdough bread (it's in the freezer), chili paste (the one that nearly killed Brett!), pickled radish, curtido (cabbage, onion and carrot) AND I found some pickled garlic I made 13 years ago (it's gone black but it will taste sweet). We'll be making (as a group) beet kvass and ginger bug (I won't as I already have one).<br />
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2nd February<br />
I now have a Portuguese Social Security number, which means I can sign on with a doctor at last.<br />
Bloody Chronopost (delivery people) sent our electric fence controller back to Germany because they said had been unable to deliver it. We got one text from them saying they'd tried to call us twice (funny, we had no missed calls) and an email asking how we would like to get our package - the link wouldn't allow us to do either of the options (track the package/rearrange delivery) - so they sent it back! Everyone has issues with package deliveries, we've been ok until this one.<br />
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3rd February<br />
Today I helped Brett burning scrub up in the top field. I'm not the best person to assist him as I spend all my time checking the fire isn't getting out of control (I'm petrified of making a wild fire, where as Brett is totally blasé and, I think, doesn't take the dangers seriously enough!).<br />
So I stayed back at the house, after coffee break, and made Scrumbles (and learnt a new vocabulary!). A Scrumble is a freeform piece of crochet; once I have made a bunch I can join them together (a bit like patchwork) to make something - I want to make a jumper. My first two Scrumbles .........<br />
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4th February<br />
Joyce would have been 89 today ......<br />
I'm trying to replicate one of my favorite dresses (Ewa I Walla design), my one is very old and falling apart. I've chosen three different materials (an old, patterned, cotton duvet cover from Lola, a muslin skirt from Debbie and an old duvet cover from Debbie). The underskirt is patchwork and will be made from the two duvet covers (this will take the most time to construct), the muslin will make the top skirt. Once made I will dye the whole dress a faded purple color (and keep my fingers crossed).<br />
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6th February<br />
Happy Birthday Alexandra Xxx<br />
Brett took the car to the garage to get the cam belt changed, it's going to take all day so he had to cycle home (good job he's fit).<br />
It's freezing cold, literally, atm. Every morning the animal's water is frozen (1/4" - 1/2" thick) and, although it's sunny, it stays cold throughout the day. We have taken to lighting the range earlier and earlier.<br />
Despite this I have germination in the polytunnel (the seed trays are in a cold frame on top of polystyrene too); so far a few tomatoes, loads of tomatillos and I can see a bean cracking open - spring is springing!!!!<br />
As I have no lemons I made preserved oranges today - they should work the same?<br />
Last week Diane told me she had made nettle cordial - of course I had to make some too!!!!! I bottled it today; it's a pretty pink color and tastes delicious (Diane says it's good with gin!).<br />
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8th February<br />
Brett handed me a 'dead duckling' this morning; he'd found it floating on the duck pond (that had ice on it, unfortunately I'd broken it!). It was soaked through, freezing cold, completely limp and no movement.<br />
I dried it off as best I could, wrapped it in a towel and put it on a hot water bottle. Then I lit the range. I continued to dry, rub, wrap in dry parts of the towel for the next hour ........ then it's mouth opened and shut - it wasn't quite dead! Three hours later, and lots of TLC, it was squeaking and jumping out of the basket it had been cocooned in. I put it back with it's siblings - job done! Now I can't tell which one it is.<br />
I hosted our fermentation group this afternoon. We made Torshi, an Iranian ferment - we have to wait a month to taste it.<br />
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9th February<br />
Brett went off on his weekly bike ride today. I spent the day sewing patchwork for the underskirt of the dress I'm making - it's very time consuming.<br />
Lucy is SO pregnant, she looks as if she has at least three kids in her and her udders look fit to burst - she MUST go into labour soon!<br />
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11th February<br />
Nope, no kids yet. Poor Lucy looks so uncomfortable; she has black skin but her udders are so full they're red!<br />
We spent the day in the veg garden. Transplanting cabbages, weeding, sowing garlic and broad beans. There's so much food ready to eat - different types of cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, beet, radish (plus the stored onions, sweet potatoes and squash, frozen sundried tomatoes, eggs) .........<br />
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One of Brett's cauliflowers ........</div>
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12th February<br />
Still no kids!!!!!<br />
Went into CB for a boring shopping trip!<br />
No kids when we got back either!<br />
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13th February<br />
She's going to *POP*, her udders are ginormous!!!<br />
Went to help T&D collect hay from Tim's place this morning (hay is in very short supply now). Diane gave me some magic tea for my cough and chest (I know one of the ingredients is hibiscus), it's a very pretty pink colour.<br />
We need rain; the wells are still almost enpty, the grass isn't growing (hardly any growth since we cut hay - that's 10 months), people are worrying about feeding and watering animals this year - we're worrying about feeding the animals and watering the vegetable garden this year!<br />
Dinner this evening: broccoli & stilton (made with calabrese), fried broccoli (sprouting), baked sweet potatoes.<br />
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14th February<br />
For goodness sake Lucy GET ON WITH IT! She looks so uncomfortable and can hardly walk with her udders forcing her back legs apart.<br />
We had to put one of our yearling rams out of his misery today. Big ram (weighs about 18 stone) rammed him into the shed wall - we think he had internal injuries. Big ram's will be gone next week!<br />
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Saturday 17th February<br />
We did the carboot today. Not terribly good this time, but I did manage to swap a couple of cauliflowers for a bag of lemons.<br />
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Sunday 18th February<br />
And still Lucy hasn't produced!!!!!<br />
The hunting season ends soon; so hunters have been more active these last couple of Sundays; shot was running down the roof!<br />
I made lemon curd with my bartered lemons.<br />
Dress prior to dyeing:<br />
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Back</div>
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Underskirt (patchwork) detail</div>
I dyed my duvet dress (purple); I'm very happy with the results (see 26th for photo). Hopefully tomorrow I can finish sewing it? I had to dye it prior to finishing the sewing as synthetic thread doesn't take the dye (I can't get old fashioned cotton thread here), so now I can finish the sewing with the appropriate coloured thread.<br />
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Wednesday 21st<br />
Big bully ram has been dispatched .......<br />
I didn't get my dress completely finished (but it's good enough to wear with a jumper!) - I love it, it has exactly the right weight in the skirt.<br />
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Thursday 22nd<br />
What a fabulous day!<br />
We had a trip to Spain with Nicky, Erd and Tallis. I wore my new dress (of course)!<br />
I bought fabric, <br />
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I'm going to make a blind for the bathroom.</div>
vegetables, different flavored paprikas, saffron, a couple of types of dried chilies and then we went for a tapas lunch - bread, olives, tongue, gambas, langoustine, calamari rings, calamari a la plancha, a mixed plate of potatoes, chorizo, eggs and ham, beer and wine (which came to 8€ a head).<br />
And ........ when we arrived home hoo-bloody-rah-about-time-too Lucy had kidded!!!!! Unfortunately two males which we had to bottle feed as they couldn't latch on to her ginormous teats! (I took 3L off of her just to make her comfortable!).<br />
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23rd February<br />
Hoorah, the kids had obviously fed overnight (only from one side, but that's a start). Took 1L from her (just to make her soft).<br />
sodding goose attacked me - made a hole in the top skirt of my new dress!!!!! Brett said 'why was I wearing it whilst doing the animals' - because 'it's new and I love it'!<br />
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26th February<br />
We lost another duckling today; it came out of the shed first thing, then this afternoon we could only see two. Seven were hatched so that's pretty poor survival rates. We don't know if it's predators or our other ducks that are picking them off.<br />
I had to patch my new dress!!!!!!!<br />
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27th February<br />
A lazy day as we're actually having a bit of rain!<br />
We've started drinking Lucy's milk (she's producing far too much for her kids), it's really creamy - I'mgoing to attempt butter making this week.<br />
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28th February<br />
A proper storm this afternoon; heavy rain and thunder.Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-60753464705004941692018-01-31T19:51:00.001+00:002018-01-31T21:21:53.818+00:00THREE MONTH'S WORTH OF BLOG ......I'm writing off November and December!!! I was in the UK for most of November and the first two weeks of December.<br />
Then, once I came home, I was ill for several weeks (in fact I'm still not 100%).<br />
Consequently Christmas was a quiet affair. We didn't buy one another presents (probably our cheapest ever Christmas!) and I've yet to buy them for family (can't get motivated). We spent Christmas day at Nicky & Erd's with Hattie & Garf, Erica & Francis, Homa & Ellie and various children. It was good fun. We supplied the turkey, brocolli (Brett's pride and joy), sausagemeat, pigs in blankets and giblet gravy - all from our quinta!<br />
Boxing day we invited friends around, in the evening, for a cold buffet (though I did make bubble and squeak) and drinks.<br />
New Year's Eve was a quiet night in, and bed by 11.00!!! (We did have the option to go out).<br />
<br />
My birthday present from Brett arrived on the 3rd January ....... <br />
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a pressure canner (all the way from America), so now I can can all my vegetable gluts. But first I have to collect preserving jars and the smallholder in me baulks at the thought of buying new jars at 75 cents - 1.50€ when these same jars can be bought, filled with beans or chickpeas (at any supermarket), for 54 cents!!!! So I've put out a call to all my crafty friends to give me these jars if they're going to throw them away.<br />
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Our three, very old (3- 4 years),Peking ducks were dispatched. We made duck breast prosciutto (bacon)<br />
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and duck confit (salted for 48 hours, then slow cooked in olive oil for 4 hours) which resulted in a delicous and tender meat.<br />
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Brett is planning his next build; a dog proof compound with three large buildings for sheep and goats, so that we can sleep soundly at night - at the moment (if it isn't raining and they're in the shed) the flock gets put into the old pig pen (by the house) and we sleep, with the window open, on high alert.<br />
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Weds 17th January<br />
We have new neighbours. We didn't notice until this evening when we saw a light; they're behind the pig run (so quite close). They appear to be living in a stone ruin that only has two walls! We think the man was building a fire. There only appears to be two people; a young child (2 - 3 years) and a man (presumably the father).<br />
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18th January<br />
I started a disgusting job - cleaning, with bleach, all the books that have been in storage since we left the farmhouse (7 years). Some of the boxes had been invaded by mice so I had to throw away quite a few of my (mainly recipe) books which had either pee or chewed damage (heartbreaking for me!). Until the living room is completed the books will live in the loft over the workshop.<br />
<br />
Friday 19th January<br />
I finished cleaning the books, I only managed to salvage one of the cardboard boxes, the rest were smelly with old mouse infestation.<br />
Last Friday we had a visitor - Pedro (Ollie & Anna's dog). Today he turned up again. Unfortunately for him he came via the, very overgrown, quinta next door and was stuck in brambles - our dogs alerted us to his plight. We managed to free him and yank him over the fence onto our land but he's covered in lengths brambles which are obviously painful as he snaps when I try to remove them (I've done what I can) - I haven't managed to get hold of Ollie or Anna yet!<br />
<br />
Saturday 20th<br />
Wow what a surprise this morning - muscovy ducklings!!!!! No duck has been sitting, well not during the daytime, and it's been very cold. At least six so far (plus a dead one - I think the male did that). Neither of the females seem terribly interested, so we've got to leave them (vulnerable) until one takes ownership. The male will be locked out of their shed, at night, (fortunately we have a spare shed) for the next week or so.<br />
<br />
21st-31st January<br />
Bloody bug has come back; this time I have a nasty, persistent, cough which keeps me awake most of the night. And my chest hurts - it was so bad the other day I likened it to having been shot (not that I ever have!), I think all the coughing strained my inter-costal muscles. I'm on my 5th bottle of cough mixture!<br />
On the duckling front we're down to three! The others disappeared, one at a time, we have no idea to where or who. As they are free range (and they need to be as they eat grass) there's not much we can do to protect them, we do separate them (and their mother) from the other ducks over night.<br />
The weather is fabulous atm; the sky is clear so we're having sunny days (with lots of warmth) and cold nights - the solar is working well.<br />
I have spent time in the polytunnel sowing seeds (tomatoes, chilies, peppers, aubergine, beans, tomatillos). On the negative side, no one's wells are filling up yet so people are worried about watering vegetables in the summer; we might move our vegetable garden and take advantage of the (full) well on the abandoned quinta next door.<br />
The broccoli and cabbage that Brett grew is doing really well. And I've discovered (char grilled) fried broccoli, it's delicious - tastes a bit like 'fried seaweed' (which is actually cabbage!) that is on some menus in Chinese restaurants.<br />
Our craft group met last Friday (first time since last spring) we did freeform crochet - I can now crochet a shell/spiral. It was a brilliant, if slightly drunken, evening. My offering of nibbles was a plate of thinly sliced duck prosciutto and three month old 'cheddar' (goat's) cheese (I was showing off!!!) <br />
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it went down very well.<br />
Diane & Thomas came yesterday (to pick up some hay). Diane has a canner and has informed me that I need special jars for canning - the ones with the disc lid and a screw band to hold it down (mason/bell jars) which are really cheap in America, very expensive (about 4 or 5 times the American price, plus postage) in UK, and non existent in Portugal - bugger!!!!!<br />
We sold our small fridge (drink's fridge) as we were only able to use it for a couple of months of the year (when the solar is at it's peak). The fridge size gap, we thought, could be shelved and used for vegetable storage or even put a wine rack in there. The dogs had other ideas - they've commandeered it as a (very tight fitting) kennel!!!!<br />
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We had to shine a torch in there, that's why Lily is in the spotlight!</div>
Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-13918809126872243032017-11-01T13:35:00.001+00:002017-11-01T13:35:37.390+00:00WHEN WILL IT RAIN??????12th October<br />
As I'm not sleeping well (keeping my ears open for dogs) I tend to get up early - it's still dark at 7.00; this morning I used the time to post my blog.<br />
It's still HOT ....<br />
Today was our fermentation group meeting at Kimberley's; not a big turnout, just six of us - Kimberley (obviously), Nicky (my driver) & me, Emma & Maria (mount of oaks) and Noya (& Emma, her daughter). I just made a small jar of kimchi.<br />
<br />
13th October<br />
Today I tried to finish organising the secondhand stuff for the carboot. Tomorrow I will sort out some of my glass which is ready to sell.<br />
I will be returning to the UK for 10 days to a fortnight at the beginning of November - now I have the fun job of looking for flights.<br />
<br />
14th October<br />
A bit cooler today (28C) and rather cloudy - we might even get rain next week!<br />
I spent most of the day in the studio sorting out stock for the carboot; I have masses, it will be interesting to see if it sells - I've put ridiculously low prices on everything (priced to sell).<br />
There are new owners at Bar do Clube, these ones do food! So we're going to try it out tonight with Andrew and Lola & Vince.<br />
<br />
15th October<br />
We had a brilliant evening and came home very full. They don't really cater for vegetarians but the lady insisted on cooking a tuna omelette for Andrew, whilst the rest of us snacked on ..... presunto , chorizo and cheese, chicken gizzards, pica-pau (pork cooked in beer or woodpecker), black pudding and bread (as I said they don't cater for veggies!).<br />
I've booked my flights to the UK; I leave on the 2nd Nov and return on the 15th.<br />
Between midnight and 19.00 (19 hours) there have been 303 wildfires today, the most in one day for the year. We can see smoke on the horizon and every other post on Facebook is photos of fires, over 5000 firefighters are deployed.<br />
Wow I have a lovely considerate family (especially my niece); Melanie is going to pick me up from the airport and drop me back - so I don't have to worry about traveling in the UK (apparently you can no longer use cash to buy tube or train tickets!).<br />
<br />
<br />
16th October<br />
Happy 70th Malcolm! Xxx<br />
The fires are bad; 30+ people dead, loads injured and some missing. Hopefully it will rain tonight.<br />
Bloody hell, poor little Bonnie was smelly; she had maggots under her (dog bite) scab - all gone now!<br />
We went into CB to buy plaster and stuff for the bathroom.<br />
The other day Lola commented that you could go into a Farmacia (pharmacy) and buy medicines without a prescription; as I'm on a couple of pills daily (and have to pay to see a doctor to write out a prescription for them) I thought I'd try it out - it's true, I just asked/showed the old container and I could buy however many I wanted!<br />
I'm having to come up with some type of display stand, for my hanging glass pieces, (I was going to use the old, stand alone, clothes airier, but I can't find it); it's not going well - I'm not happy (big sulks).<br />
So we're off to bed with the promise of heavy rain overnight and tomorrow ........<br />
<br />
17th October<br />
04.00 RAIN, thunder & lightning (of course now I worried about the goats and sheep being out in it).<br />
The fogos.pt site showed no active fires this morning .......... But this weekend was bad, so many have lost their quintas and possessions (and at least 36 lives .....).<br />
Very dull day = poor solar so we had the generator on - I did a batch of sandblasting.<br />
Sorting though the fridge today, we had to give the pigs a whole load of over ripe cheese (Mozzarella and Feta) - I'm not at all happy about that .....<br />
Nicky, Erd & Taliss are coming to dinner tomorrow, so I made chocolate mousse.<br />
<br />
18th October<br />
Paypal have resolved our dispute, re the milking machine, IN OUR FAVOUR!!!!!!! £373.10 will be credited to our account ........ (he'll probably appeal).<br />
Noooooo, our really expensive, 11 month old, generator has broken!!!!! Which means (1) I can't use my kiln atm but, more importantly, (2) we can't run the water pump to fill the animal's water. It is under warranty; but, until we hear differently, we worry that whatever has happened isn't covered.<br />
We had fun with Nicky, Erd and Taliss. Taliss had Looby on a lead and was walking her around the kitchen table - she such a sweet natured dog.<br />
<br />
19th October<br />
So today we had to go into CB to buy a cheap (260€) generator, just so that we could do the animal's water.<br />
I bought a clothes airier to display my hanging glass (panels, bunting, suncatchers) from at the car boot - I will tie it in the back of the truck so it can't fall over.<br />
<br />
20th October<br />
Boring day today, finishing off glass panels (soldering on rings etc to hang them from) and packing everything up for the carboot tomorrow.<br />
It's suddenly gone cold - tomorrow we will light the range.<br />
<br />
21st October<br />
We were up early (for us), animals fed and milked by 8.45 so that we could get to the carboot as near to 9.00 as possible.<br />
When I mentioned to somebody that there weren't as many buyers as last month she said "that's because they all have stalls this month" and she was right, masses of stalls this month (lots selling food), but not so many customers. We still managed to take over 100€; I sold a glass dish, a string of bunting and some suncatchers (68.50), so not too bad and I might do a couple of days at the Christmas market in Penamacor.<br />
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22nd October<br />
WE GOT OUR MONEY BACK (all £373.10) for the milking machine!!! Good old Paypal. Funny thing is we still can't pay using the paypal account as our address is in Portugal so they want us to open a Portuguese Paypal account but we don't have a Portuguese bank - it's all very complicated.<br />
<br />
23rd October<br />
The end of the summer was declared today by the dismantling of the pool. The water in it was thick and green!<br />
We are about to have a very social week so I did a proper house clean (a hated task).<br />
<br />
24th October<br />
Nicky and Taliss came round for a sewing day. Poor old Nicky she isn't get anywhere fast as I keep unpicking her work! Which is only fair as they, mainly Taliss, completely destroyed my house tidying; it looked like a bomb had dropped when they left and I was shattered, Taliss is very demanding "play with me" is her constant plea (she's a fabulous child).<br />
<br />
25th October<br />
Tristan & Natalie came for lunch (chicken and salad wraps, chocolate mousse). They are proper gardeners (they used to grow and sell organic veg, on a large scale, back in the UK), they are also very keen fungi foragers (Tristan even knows Roger Phillips!!!!); we think, between the four of us, we have identified one of the boletus mushrooms that grows on our land (under oak trees) as a Butyriboletus appendiculatus/boletus appendiculatus/butter boletes, if we are correct it IS edible - so we a terribly excited.<br />
<br />
26th October<br />
Happy Birthday Lawrence XXX<br />
We met Kevin & Wendy (and Melanie, Kevin's sister) in Castelo Nova for lunch.<br />
It was a very sobering drive from Vale De Prazeres, Alpedrinha, and onto Castelo Nova; we drove through, literally, acres and acres of burnt woodland and mountainside. These villages were surrounded on all sides by fire and in parts the fire was actually amongst the houses, it must have been terrifying.<br />
Castelo Nova is a picturesque village with a castle ruin at the top. Lunch was well cooked, a little expensive (15€ per head), the restaurant was very popular.<br />
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Bugger, our generator warranty isn't valid in Portugal, UK only (they didn't tell us that when they shipped it out to us); so we've got to find Hyundai service engineers here (or just pay someone to fix it, which is what will probably happen anyway!).<br />
Tomorrow we have Andrew, Chris & Di coming for dinner (veggie) and I want to make gram flour (from our chickpeas), to make onion bhajis with. I have attempted this with both my big and small food processors/grinders but all I acheived was a very loud noise and slightly bruised chickpeas .......<br />
Tomorrow I will try the liquidiser/blender (our ears couldn't take anymore this evening!).<br />
<br />
27th October<br />
The liquidiser/blender worked to an extent - giving a rather coarse flour. Fortunately we had to go into CB this morning (to buy Brett something to wear on his cycle ride), so we bought a coffee grinder hoping it would grind the flour finer.<br />
Grinding chickpeas to make gram flour: stage (1) liquidiser/blender (coarse flour) stage (2) coffee grinder (finer flour).<br />
Cooking vegetarian curries for this evening (green banana and coconut, chickpea and black eyed bean dahl) and making fresh coconut chutney (my favourite).<br />
<br />
28th October<br />
I snook off to bed around midnight, I was falling asleep. The bhajis and pickles (fresh coconut, brinjal and fermented lime) were a great success and very filling. I'm not so sure about the banana curry!!! It was a boozy affair and this morning we are both a trifle delicate.<br />
Billy somehow managed to get over the fence and off quinta, he was desperate to get back; Brett had to lead him through Elise's (Gary's) quinta and the eucalyptus wood back onto our quinta (we don't know how he got out).<br />
We walked around all our fields assessing our olives - the trees are dripping with fruit, we will start harvesting on my return.<br />
The government has already extended the fire ban twice (we are not allowed bonfires, barbecues, to use metal bladed strimmers etc) throughout the summer (usually May to the beginning of October), it's now been put back to the 15th November.<br />
This evening Sasha & Chris's family are having a festa/rave type event (with trance music) - not my cup of tea, but we are going!<br />
<br />
29th October<br />
Well it was just like any other expat gathering, everyone standing around the bar drinking and talking - they were selling G&Ts for 1€ (guess what I was drinking).<br />
Brett went for a bike ride whilst I made Welsh cakes as Diane & John (Diane & Thomas's neighbours) were coming for afternoon tea.<br />
<br />
30th October<br />
Today we gardened. We sowed carrots, parsnips, beetroot, radish, metre long beans, fava beans, weeded and prepared trenches for future sowings.<br />
<br />
31st October<br />
I hate days like today - dealing with bureaucracy, (1) in a foreign language and (2) over the phone (fortunately not both at the same time!); firstly the medical centre said I had to register with a doctor, to do this I needed a Social Security number. Our first obstacle was finding the Social Security office (we drove and walked around in circles looking for it), then I was told I couldn't have a number as I don't work, we were informed I needed to get a form from the UK proving that the NHS will pay my medical bills. Found out this is an S1 form.<br />
Next I had to phone the 'fraud squad' at my bank because I wanted to move some of MY MONEY from my account to another account (in my name) - I've done it several times before, this time I got a big red box declining my payment and telling me to phone them. Their security questions were very detailed asking me what type of device I was using to access my account, who provided our internet, my middle names, which branch I opened my account at (I got that wrong!), my address when I opened the account, what age I would be next birthday, maiden name, they went on and on .......<br />
And finally phoning DWP to request the S1 form; again answering loads of questions to verify who I am, re-spelling our Portuguese address and our Welsh email address several times (using alpha, papa, delta, echo etc which I don't know so I'm saying apple, pig, dog, elephant etc) before (I think) she got them down correctly.<br />
<br />
<br />Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-85538922024662105712017-10-12T08:18:00.000+01:002017-10-12T08:18:51.655+01:00SOMETIMES I JUST WANT TO STOP DOING THIS ......12th September<br />
It's still HOT! (30+).<br />
For over two weeks I haven't eaten gluten (bread, pasta, pastry, cereal etc, in fact I've cut out all starchy carbs) and has it made any difference to my aches and pains? Has it hell! I can't sleep at night because my joints are so achy. Oh yeah, and I haven't lost any weight either!!!!<br />
Ow, ow, ow ....... whilst watering the vegetable garden I got stung (by a wasp?) right at the top of my leg, it really throbs!<br />
Brett still working on the bathroom.<br />
<br />
13th September<br />
It's still in the 30's, this is supposed to be autumn! At least it's cool enough to weed the veg garden.<br />
My sting is hot, swollen and painful .........<br />
<br />
14th September<br />
So, whilst weeding the veg garden yesterday, I decided that I would be more comfortable sitting than standing and bending; I upturned a bucket, after a while it collapsed(!), I landed on my back. It didn't really hurt, I just carried on weeding - today I can hardly move my head, my neck is so stiff and painful (whiplash?).<br />
On a good note my sting has gone down and is no longer throbbing, just itching.<br />
Our fridge is so full of cheese; I check it often for moisture, mold, ripeness etc. Today I found a four week old Chevre (that I'm ageing), it looked and smelt like Camembert; <br />
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we tried it at lunchtime - the flavor is good but it needs to be more gooey, another week should do it.<br />
Today Brett put the glass blocks in the shower area - they look fab. <br />
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The area will be tiled (haven't chosen any yet).<br />
<br />
15th September<br />
Hoorah, a bit cooler today - so I made (more) cheese, Cheddar.<br />
My beans are already coming through ......<br />
Soddin' goats; everytime we (Brett) leave one of the gates, to the decking, open they sneak in to steal onions!!!!. We've never known goats to like onions before - we have weird goats.<br />
My neck is still giving me gyp; Brett says I'm walking like a zombie!<br />
<br />
16th September<br />
Happy Birthday Laura. Xxx<br />
Pete's Car Boot Sale was on today; at a new venue, the sport's field in Aldeia do Bispo - lots more stalls than normal and quite a few customers, we will probably do a stall next month. Met a few 'new' people - it was a rather social gathering.<br />
Took the Cheddar out of the press, it now needs to air dry before I band it.<br />
My neck isn't getting much better yet - I've even resorted to Ibuprofen!<br />
<br />
17th September<br />
Happy Birthday Lily. Xxx<br />
How many ways, and how much, cheese can I use in one day? Well let's see what I did today.......<br />
(1) Foudjou (uses soft Chevre and Cheddar) a French potted cheese, recipe from Diana Henry.<br />
(2) Onion fritatta (older/firmer Chevre) for lunch.<br />
(3) Tomato salad (Mozzarella), for lunch.<br />
Actually I thought I'd used more!<br />
Our aubergines are fruiting well so I char griddled some and jarred them in olive oil (Diana Henry again) - nice accompaniment to lunch.<br />
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Aubergines (left), Foudjou (right)</div>
I picked a load of apples off the tree so that I can store them for the winter.<br />
Brett is volunteering, again this week, to clear burnt woodland at one of the decimated quintas, so I made chocolate fridge cake (my contribution).<br />
Haha I managed another 'cheese' use; dinner was garlic marinated, sliced, chicken breast fried with (4) Mozzarella(!!!!) and tomato salsa, lemon glazed carrots (bought!), French beans - the cheese worked well.<br />
<br />
18th September<br />
The night's are cooler; we even used a cover last night, so we're sleeping better.<br />
Brett's volunteering day has been cancelled - so we have a large chocolate fridge cake to eat, fortunately Taliss is coming on Wednesday (sewing day)!<br />
So I organised all my paper, to individually wrap the apples, and ...... everyone of them had an insect hole in them - so I spent the day prepping and cooking sliced apples to freeze! I'm half way through and, so f I've found one unblemished apple!<br />
<br />
19th September<br />
We had guests for lunch, Lola and Katherine (her lodger for the month); of course I had to make 'everything from the quinta' - chicken waldorf salad, tomato salad (with Mozzarella), cabbage and apple salad (with feta), marinated aubergines and various ferments, then junket for pudding.<br />
<br />
20th September<br />
And today it was the turn of Nicky & Taliss - we had the leftovers from yesterday, plus chocolate fridge cake. Taliss's dress needs at least one more session (because I kept unpicking it!).<br />
<br />
21st September<br />
Happy Birthday Helen! Xxx<br />
Alfie (Chris & Di's dog) is missing!<br />
I made apple jelly.<br />
<br />
22nd September<br />
So I spent the day in the kitchen making cheddar and chicken liver pate - and doing all the associated washing up!<br />
Exciting times, the bathroom is nearly ready for the roof. Brett has to cut out the holes for the beams and I have to paint them (the beams) - we're using the blue/grey paint we originally bought for the field gates (waste not, want not!).<br />
Really excited, it's a pity the 'end of the world' is due tomorrow!!!!<br />
<br />
23rd September<br />
Ok we're still here!!!!!!!<br />
Our bed clothes needed washing; so I spent the morning doing the washing only to have it pointed out, just as I was finishing, that I'd forgotten to strip the bed!!!! Fortunately I hadn't drained all the water away.<br />
Brett had a frustrating day; he cut all the slots for the roof beams in the bathroom, only to find that all the beams were banana shaped and twisted!!!! However, after having had a good old moan, he worked out how to still fit them so that the roof can be attached.<br />
4.00 Bar do Club ....... Us, Andrew, Greg & Sarah, Chris & Di, Baptiste, Paul & Martine. It's election time and the Socialists came round - we were given - pens, hats and (Greg got a teashirt!).<br />
<br />
24th September<br />
Painted the bathroom (banana) beams. Tomorrow we go to CB to buy the roofing.<br />
<br />
25th September<br />
CB to buy roofing, shower and lights for our new bathroom!<br />
An exhausting day with lots of compromising going on (could only get 30mm chapas, wanted 40mm, the lights we saw a couple of months ago were no longer in the shop so we got some that were ok, green rather than blue, we bought new mugs, but they were 1/2 the size of our old ones etc.), we were pleased to get home.<br />
<br />
26th September<br />
OUR WORST SMALLHOLDING DAY (probably) EVER:<br />
We went to do our morning check on our sheep and goats (just after breakfast); they had been attacked overnight!!! THREE of our pregnant ewes were dead; of the rest of the flock, many have multiple bites and puncture wounds. We had to borrow T&D's captive bolt gun, as Decibel was so badly injured she needed putting out of her misery. We have no idea what attacked them but we're thinking it must have been a pack of big dogs, (1) from the amount of damage caused, and (2) for them to have been able to get into our quinta - they must have been able to jump the metre high stock fences - most of our quinta is fully fenced (all the animal's areas are) so our dogs and animals can't get off the quinta unless we open gates (the gates were all shut last night).<br />
So we had a horrible day; attending our injured flock, disposing of carcasses (compost bins, liberally doused in bleach) and finding them all a safe place to sleep this evening - the injured lambs are in the small shed (the milking goats are outside in the corral, where they usually sleep) and the rest of the flock are in the old pig run (close to the house). Our windows will be open and we'll try leaving the dogs on the decking, but probably bring them in as Lily will happily bark all night!<br />
<br />
27th September<br />
A quiet night (even Lily was quiet); this morning the sheep all seem relaxed and their wounds are no worse - except poor little Clyde who's extra injury, we noticed today, is a shredded scrotum!!!!! He now has blue balls - the colour of the antiseptic spray.<br />
Well that's a turn up ....... I phoned Paypal today, re our milking machine, and (even though we paid by debit card not through Paypal) we appear to be covered, they're going to freeze our payment to our seller and he had 10 days to contact them, if he doesn't get in touch on day 11 we get our money back!!!!!<br />
For dinner I cooked winter squash - using a squash we harvested August 2016! They have kept really well.<br />
Animal bedtime and one of the Muscovy females is missing; we finally locate her, under the decking, sitting on a nest - no way we can reach her tonight, so fingers crossed nothing else finds her (Lily will let us know if any predators get close).<br />
<br />
28th September<br />
Another quiet night ....<br />
I can't believe it is still so hot (30s), we haven't had rain for months.<br />
It's our least favourite time of the year - fly season. Swarms (well that's what it feels like) get into the house - we spend all day with fly swats in our hands.<br />
The bathroom roof went on today!!!!!!!<br />
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It might not look much, but it will greatly improve our lives ...</div>
<br />
29th September<br />
35C!!!!!!<br />
We're invited to dinner with Katherine (Lola's tenant) so I made honeycomb.<br />
I also made Mozzarella.<br />
<br />
30th September<br />
Katherine gave us fish & chips! It was a nice evening but we couldn't relax as we were away from the sheep.<br />
The village was packed as we drove out/in to the village - something to do with the election and it looked like free food and drink!<br />
My mission is to shell the chickpeas, so far I've managed 1/2 a sweetjar - it's very time consuming (and boring!).<br />
<br />
1st October<br />
Of course we went to the bar last night - it was shut! New owners have taken over and they're getting it ready. So we went to Pimenta's bar (warm beer!) and then relocated to Café Central (better) - we left, to do our animals, just as they were ordering port ......<br />
The sheep are healing well, bless them.<br />
Milk production is declining rapidly; only 2L this morning, Jelisa is down by about 75% (probably because she is pregnant) - typical that I've been waiting for the weather to cool, so I could make certain cheeses, and now I won't have the milk to make it with!<br />
I had a VERY frustrating morning, on the phone to Paypal; our seller is saying he has sent the correct documentation and that the machine has been delivered to us!!!!<br />
Still shelling chickpeas .........<br />
And the garden still keeps giving; I picked a bowl of strawberries, French beans, capsicums, aubergines and tomatoes, harvested the last of the onions and we started harvesting winter squash and sweet potatoes.<br />
<br />
2nd October<br />
I was woken by Brett at 3.00 a.m. our neighbour's chickens were making a hell of a racket, we're really worried that they were being attacked by something. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do; although these neighbours border our quinta we can't physically get onto their land from ours as we are separated by a winter riverbed, the banks (either side) are dense with willow, quince and bamboo (animals can get through but not humans) and on his side a stock fence too. To get to this quinta we need to drive about two kilometres (they're accessed by a different track to us) but even then we couldn't get in, as the neighbours live in the village and their gates are kept locked. Brett let our dogs out - they ran off in the other direction! He shone a torch (but could see nothing); we felt terribly inadequate.<br />
I didn't sleep until daybreak, in case the preditor came our (our sheep's) way.<br />
OMG I made us an avocado and prawn salad for lunch ....... I think the prawns were raw!!!!!! They were frozen, but they were also pink (so I stupidly assumed they were cooked), so now we're expecting to be ill!<br />
One wheelbarrow of chickpeas down = more than an old fashioned sweet jar full of peas.<br />
Brett started on the electrics for the bathroom (well he's making gaps for the cable runs).<br />
So far so good (re raw prawns) ......<br />
<br />
3rd October<br />
IT'S OCTOBER and we're still getting temperatures of 35C!!!!! And no rain is forecast for at least 10 days.<br />
I podded another half wheelbarrowful of chickpeas (took me most of the day!).<br />
A day and a half since I 'poisoned' us, so far so good (although I have been feeling queasy - but I know that I am high suggestable!!!).<br />
<br />
4th October<br />
Still no ill effects .........<br />
Still bloody hot ..........<br />
Still shelling chickpeas ...........<br />
Piglet is growing .........<br />
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<br />
5th October<br />
We went to Spain this morning. Everyone talks about a shop, 'Gamma', where you can purchase tiles - it was bloody expensive (one of those shops where they don't put on prices!), so we came home with nothing - well I bought some material from the market for 2€ which should make two or three dresses.<br />
Tomorrow we will go to Alcains to look at the tiles there.<br />
FINISHED podding the chickpeas (6.2 kilos), <br />
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we also weighed the blackened beans (5 kilos) that we podded last month. I'm going to grind some of the chickpeas to make gram flour. We have enough pulses now to keep us through the winter (hummus, pork & beans, baked beans, falafel, dhal, flatbreads, soups, refried beans, salads .......).<br />
<br />
6th October<br />
Well the Alcain's tile shop has change considerably (and not for the better!), so we came away from there empty handed. But we found some tiles we like, amazingly, in Bricomache. Not overly cheap, so we're going to make a feature of them behind the wash stand.<br />
We saw Amelia and her husband as we were going back to the car - apparently Mark has broken a rib (maybe he'll come out here to recuperate?).<br />
<br />
7th October<br />
I did a job I have been dreading (in case I broke it) making a hole in old bowl (we've had it for twenty odd years and it was old when we bought it) that we're going to use as a wash basin, in the new bathroom. I used my sandblaster and then the dremel - it worked!!!! And it goes really well with the tiles. It has a matching jug, unfortunately this has a big chunk of the lip missing - I'm wondering if I could mend it (with Fimo?) ........<br />
There was a dragonfly trapped in my studio, it was trying to get out through the glass blocks, so I kindly picked it up, to release it out through the doors - it bloody well bit me!!!!! No blood was drawn, but it was quite a painful nip (I said "ouch" and dropped it!); I captured it in a box, instead of my hands, and let it out - it then spent the rest of the morning trying to get back in!<br />
Meantime, Brett made the house really, really dusty - channeling out the blocks for the electric cables.<br />
C&D are in the UK; so it was just us, Andrew and Sara & Greg at the bar this evening - we came home sober, but both agreed that it was a very enjoyable evening (smaller groups make conversation easier).<br />
<br />
8th October<br />
Just before 6.00 a.m. we were woken by a dog bark, coming from the sheep enclosure, closely followed by our dogs barking and growling, Brett falling out of bed in his haste, and running naked and shoeless into the dark. I struggled into a dress (went out with my arm through the neck hole). But it, whatever it was, was well gone; Brett heard the fence 'ping' as it jumped over into Gary's old place. The flock was unscathed; we were very thankful that we had them close to the house (we had been starting to think that we didn't need to continue putting them in there overnight).<br />
Today I decided to make a dress, with the material I bought on Thursday; I like the dress I copied from Pam, I put it on to the check the fit - Brett informed me that it reminded him of jodpers saying "have you seen it from the back?". He doesn't like baggy dresses (pity I've got a baggy body!), so now I don't know what to do!<br />
I compromised; I made it tighter than I would normally, but not as tight as Brett would have liked! It actually looks rather posh (for me!).<br />
The wildfires have started again, we've been seeing plumes of dark smoke for a couple of days.<br />
<br />
9th October<br />
We went to Fundao to buy vegetable plugs (mainly onions) and came back with two big bags of plugs (white onions, red onions, broccoli, Dutch cabbage, pointy cabbage, kale (I hope) and cauliflower) and turkey poults (3 for us, 2 for T&D).<br />
This afternoon we had to prepare channels for the veg and this evening we had to plant them - instant garden!<br />
Tomorrow we've been invited for lunch at Nicky & Erd's, so I made some peanut butter fudge to take.<br />
<br />
10th October<br />
We had a fabulous time at N&E's and lunch was a feast - meatballs, roast aubergines, salad, rice, yoghurt dressing and pomegranate sprinkles - all very colourful.<br />
On our way home we stopped to speak to Mr Louis; he told us that several of the shepherds around us have lost sheep to dogs recently - he suggested we shoot the dogs (easier said than done, we have to see them first - oh yeah and get a gun!). But we are now even more worried about another attack.<br />
We have decided that we are (Brett is!) going to build a 20' x 20', dog proof, sheep pen for the flock to be housed in overnight.<br />
<br />
11th October<br />
I didn't sleep well; I was listening for dogs all night ........<br />
Lola came for coffee and gossip - always great fun!!!<br />
Then I sorted out stuff to sell at the carboot in a week's time. The boxes have been stored in the big shed for five years, mice had made their homes in some of my boxes of material - all now chucked! It was horribly dirty work.<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-52138814767184677562017-09-12T21:03:00.002+01:002017-09-12T21:03:38.834+01:00AND THIS IS AUTUMN?????21st August<br />
And another hot day .......<br />
When we came back from watering the vegetable garden there was a message from Lola & Vince asking if they could call around in about an hour. Yes of course, but, as they tend to be late, they would be arriving at lunchtime, so I made a courgette fritatta and a tomato salad (enough to share). By 1.45 we were hungry, so decided to eat! A while later there was a message from Lola - they'd been (and gone), our car was there, but we were obviously out, had we forgotten they were coming? How bizarre, we were in the house the whole time!!!!!<br />
The Corvilha fire looked like it was under control this morning, this evening it's back to raging.<br />
We missed the partial eclipse - too much smoke! But we did see: shooting stars, airplanes, the space station and UFOs whilst bobbing in the pool, before bed!<br />
<br />
22nd August<br />
We popped into Penamacor for animal food; on our way back, along our track, we saw a mongoose! It was really close and we saw it for a long time - best view I have ever had of one. Then, just inside the vegetable garden, we saw a golden oriel.<br />
It's too hot to go outside! And, nightmare, our pool has gone thick and green!!!!<br />
This evening I'm off to learn how to play backgammon (watch out Rebecca & Paul next time you visit!).<br />
<br />
23rd August<br />
Well I got to the bar at 8.00, got home around midnight, only having drunk ONE beer! I now know the very basic rules of backgammon - I even won two games. They want to make it a weekly meeting, we'll see ......<br />
Another scorcher. I was going to make cheese but it was too hot.<br />
Brett has volunteered to be part of the community team going around to help out at the quintas that were affected by last week's fires. I have to stay here, as they're leaving our village at 6.15 a.m. and I will need to be here to do all the morning animal chores.<br />
And both mountains are on fire this evening! Rain is forecast for next week (fingers crossed).<br />
<br />
24th August<br />
It's supposed to be cooling down today, but it still feels hot to me! And the mountains are still burning.<br />
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We are just above the cross roads and 'h' in Idanha a Nova</div>
I'm starting to get more tomatoes to dry (not nearly as many as last year); quite a selection of shapes, sizes and colours.<br />
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Some of our watermelons are a bit 'floury' textured so I made some watermelon fruit leather - I added a bit of citric acid in the hope that it would taste like tangfastics!<br />
We caught up with Andrew this evening over a couple of drinks at Bar do Clube.<br />
Early evening the wind blew the smoke from the big fires in the mountains, to our north/north east, causing a HUGE black, ash depositing, cloud in our valley - it was like a scene from a post apocalyptic film!<br />
<br />
25th August<br />
A much cooler night; we didn't need the fan on - I even used the bedcovers!<br />
So much smoke and ash in the air still.<br />
Because of our stupid bank (closing it's current accounts) we're having to travel to Penamacor daily to take out money to tide us over until we can find away of spending in Portugal without paying exorbitant bank charges.<br />
This evening we're off to Greg & Sara's for dinner, unfortunately poor old Brett's up at 5.00 as he's volunteered to help out at one of the farms that was gutted by the fire (clearing burnt woodland and digging drainage ditches for the surviving trees as the irrigation system was destroyed).<br />
<br />
26th August<br />
We had a lovely evening with G&S, it would have been very easy to stay longer but Brett needed some sleep; as it was he didn't get to bed until about 1.00. They had cooked a couple of curries (always popular with us), something that's hard to find in Central Portugal (unless you make it yourself or go into the big towns). They had the cutest, 4 month old, puppy, who was obviously teething.<br />
Bank account saga cont.<br />
Our account closes at the end of the month, we're busily getting out (250€ per day limit) a lump sum of cash to tide us over.<br />
Today I signed up for a Monzo card (preloaded debit card with free overseas withdrawals/spending - problem is it's limited to £3000 per year).<br />
No proof of address required but to prove identity I had to take a photo of my passport photo and then a VIDEO OF MY FACE (!!!) whilst reciting (something like) "please send me a Monzo card" - my video face looked nothing like my passport photo but I passed the test and a card is being issued.<br />
Brett didn't get home until early afternoon, then (4.00) we were off to Bar do Clube for a 'few' drinks with the gang (16€ later we staggered home!).<br />
<br />
27th August<br />
Brett worked a couple of hours at Stuart's this morning to get his roof waterproof as rain is forecast (big smiley face!).<br />
11.15 a message (plus photos) from Annika to the fire alert group - fire in Penamacor!!!! <br />
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The view from our supermarket car park!!!</div>
We left it until the fire was under control before we ventured into Penamacor to get out money.<br />
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28th August<br />
A smallholding day including 2 gallons of milk made into Halloumi.<br />
We were going to have carrots this evening but ..... the sand, we stored ALL our carrot harvest in, was empty of carrots (bar a few bits); we don't think it was rodents as the sand was extremely hard and there was no sign of burrowing or poo. We think, but have no proof, that the sand got excessively hot and cooked/dessicated the carrots!<br />
All day we waited for the rain. ........ it came overnight.<br />
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29th August<br />
Castelo Branco - we haven't been for nearly 2 months (!) so lots to do. While we were there we met Concebelle & Andrew (we first met them at A&K's (last year), then they bought some Muscovys off us), they're really nice, so I invited them to lunch next week.<br />
I should have gone to backgammon club this evening but I forgot and once reminded was too tired.<br />
This evening it rained again.<br />
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30th August<br />
I never thought I'd get bored with cheese making! But it's so often ....... Today was Mozzarella.<br />
After the last two days of rain Brett took the tractor up to the vegetable garden to prepare the ground for winter planting - he said it was as dry as a bone and very, very dusty!<br />
We (me, Di, Sara and Pam) had a 'girlie night' at Sara's watching 'Mama Mia' (Di had never seen it!) and drinking Sangria - the 'husbands' sat outside and drank beer!<br />
We got home at 1.00 and decided to go to Spain tomorrow - early start as Spain is an hour ahead and the market finishes at 12.00.<br />
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31st August<br />
Well the market was a great success; I bought three pieces of material for 5€. The colours and patterns aren't really my choice (but Brett told me not to be fussy!), however the texture is good (not stiff) and I will do some printing on it.<br />
Then we went to the supermarket and bought some intresting tinned seafood (razor clams, anchovies etc).<br />
We were home by 11.30.<br />
This afternoon I cut out and printed one dress, will sew it tomorrow.<br />
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I added the birds (of course!)</div>
Brett continued to prepare for winter - although it's still 30+!<br />
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1st September<br />
Today I started an interesting cheese 'Mason Jar Marcellin'; it has to be aged in a jar (which creates the right environment) for six weeks and it's supposed to rival Camembert.<br />
We made 15K of grape juice; it'll be fizzy by the end of the week, grape juice soda!<br />
One dress finished!<br />
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Di phoned this evening - Richie had found a child! A young boy had been exploring and got lost, he couldn't find his way home (he's only been here a month). Fortunately his parents were located within the hour.<br />
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2nd September<br />
I made a second dress today.<br />
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Usual Saturday visit to Bar do Clube, but we manage to come away sober for a change.<br />
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3rd September<br />
We harvested our onions, some nice big ones, hope they keep well, I'll plait them up.<br />
Lots of house tidying and gardening today as we have visitors tomorrow (Andrew & Concebelle) for lunch - they're coming to be inspired!<br />
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4th September<br />
Happy Birthday Sarah Xxx<br />
All the food and drink I prepared for lunch was from our quinta; figs stuffed with feta on a bed of rocket and nasturcium leaves & flowers, roast chicken, tomato salad with mozzarella, pickled cabbage, fermented cherry tomato bombs and grape juice (with sparkling water - bought!). It was a good afternoon.<br />
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6th September<br />
We started our winter garden; we bought, and Brett planted, 50 brassica plugs (4€).<br />
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Nicky arrived (late as usual) for an afternoon of sewing; her excuse? She'd been trying to load a sofa (from the side of the bins) into her van but it was too heavy/big! After the sewing lesson we drove back with her, loaded the sofa into the back of our truck and delivered it to her place (mainly so that we could see Erd's reaction/face!!!!!).<br />
<br />
7th September<br />
1st Fermentation Club (The Fermentalists) meeting. We had a brilliant meeting at Nicky & Erd's; there were twelve of us, we all took ferments to show, lunch to share and ingredients to make into ferments. I came home with Apple Relish, Tomato Salsa and Lime (but in my case Orange, Lemon and Lime) Pickle.<br />
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Brett has stared back on the bathroom.<br />
We strung up our onions and hung them on the decking.<br />
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8th September<br />
I'm going through a tired and achy phase, hope it goes soon!<br />
Bloody goats keep stealing our onions!!!!<br />
And more fires ........<br />
<br />
9th September<br />
What a difference a day makes .......<br />
This morning I was revelling in my goosebumps - however I soon put on a jumper!<br />
I took advantage of the cooler weather to start some Chevre, which I want to age (I haven't managed it yet), it needs to ferment for two days at 'room temperature' so it's been put outside on the barbeque (which is on the shaded side of the house).<br />
I sowed some beans and peas in our Winter veg bed.<br />
Brett carried on with the bathroom (smiley face!).<br />
Then (as it's Saturday) we went to the bar .......<br />
<br />
10th September<br />
The sow gave birth yesterday evening; two piglets, but only one alive (she probably rolled on, and killed, the dead one, like last time!). The remaining piglet is female, seems very lively, and we've seen her feeding - fingers crossed she survives her mother's total unawareness!!!!!!<br />
The temperature has risen again and, of course, it's too hot for cheese making again, so I had to strain the curds off the whey - I'm still going to try to age it.<br />
<br />
11th September<br />
Happy Birthday Gill, hope you have a fabulous day! Xxx<br />
The piglet (female) seems strong and healthy, so hopefully she will survive her mother's lack of awareness.<br />
I spent the whole morning doing the washing and shelling chickpeas. Brett block laid ....<br />
<br />
12th September<br />
Whilst we were watering the vegetables I got stung (by a wasp?) right up the top of my leg - it throbs .......,.<br />
So our latest communication from Customs (re the milking machine) is that the paperwork our seller sent us is not what they asked for. Brett phoned Ebay and you're only covered for 30 days!!!!! So it's looking like we have lost £450 which is ridiculous/annoying, we just can't think go to get it back - we're both in bloody bad moods today!<br />
I cleaned out the fridge, there's so much cheese in there (Chevre at various ages (2 days - 7 weeks), Mozzarella, Feta, Halloumi, Cheddar, Crotin and Mason jar Marcellin), we're just not eating it fast enough!<br />
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<br />Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-82616677964115208682017-08-21T17:21:00.000+01:002017-08-21T17:26:15.935+01:00IT'S THAT SCARY TIME OF YEAR .......28th July<br />
Our inverter is playing up; we have to turn the freezer off overnight (although the batteries have charge), last night it was beeping so we had to turn everything off - we have bought a new inverter but don't want to install it until the solar shed is built.<br />
So I got out of bed, in the dark, trod on my shoes and my foot has been throbbing all day!<br />
We tried to open a Portuguese bank account today ...... they wanted so much documentation, including proof of earnings/pension - needless to say we came home empty handed and frustrated!<br />
The Conserva Cruda Di Pomodoro was finished today; one bucket of tomatoes = a very small jar of paste.<br />
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I've just posted my blog and as I uploaded the photos I realised they were mainly of food!!!<br />
And this evening the inverter died!!! It just wouldn't switch back on - thank goodness for the generator. Tomorrow Brett will install the new Victron inverter.<br />
<br />
29th July<br />
And we're up and running .......<br />
I'm so impressed that Brett has the knowledge and confidence to work with the solar (you can't switch the batteries off!), though I do get really stressed!<br />
So much milk ....... 10L made into Halloumi.<br />
Brett finished harvesting the black eyed beans, they're now drying in the sun, on the decking.<br />
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<br />
30th July<br />
Apart from his daily chores Brett had a day off as he and Chris are working on Stuart's roof tomorrow.<br />
I attempted a few designs for Bill's Transom window - it's a horrible shape (flattened semicircle) and no brief ........<br />
<br />
31st July<br />
A busy day for me as Brett is at Stuart's.<br />
Before breakfast chores:<br />
Feed and let out muscovys, ducks and geese.<br />
Try to contact Brett to find out if he's fed the ewe and lambs, who are following me around bleating.<br />
Milk the goats (including sterilising all equipment at end)<br />
Getting goats into field, without letting any of the other sheep and goats out!<br />
Wash panels (as inverter has already turned off once whilst flashing 'low battery').<br />
Feed ewe and lambs (stand guard so muscovys don't eat their food).<br />
Feed dogs and cat.<br />
Coffee and breakfast!!!<br />
Next chores:<br />
Sun dried tomatoes, sort through and put out in sunshine (they have to come in overnight otherwise they go mouldy).<br />
Water vegetable seeds (in vegetable garden).<br />
Pig wallow.<br />
Duck water (with buckets as solar is low)<br />
Washing up and tidy house.<br />
Preparing a sackful of windfall apples for apple jelly.<br />
Dinner this evening; marinating Turkish kebabs and making dough for flat breads.<br />
Feed geese.<br />
Washing kitchen floor.<br />
Moving beans from decking, as it's about to rain.<br />
Brett home:<br />
Get water from the fonte.<br />
Pick salad.<br />
Drain apples through jelly bag.<br />
Shape kebabs.<br />
Roll out dough and cook flat bread.<br />
Relax and have a beer .........<br />
<br />
1st August<br />
Brett at work ...<br />
And now I have to do it all over again!!!<br />
Extra jobs today: make cheese (chevre), make apple jelly, make apple chutney (from left over pulp), make yoghurt and washing.<br />
I managed it all barr the washing - the gas ran out (need it to heat the water), I was secretly pleased!<br />
<br />
2nd August<br />
Hooray Brett's at home!<br />
I had a scare milking Jelisa today, no milk was coming from her left teat. On closer inspection (squeezing and manipulating by hand) I discovered a large rubbery plug right up inside her teat, it took a while to work it free (and of course it made her uncomfortable so she was kicking and stamping) but once it was dislodged she gushed ...... I was (of course) worried about mastitis but, on googling the phenomenon, I found that it was something that could sometimes occur. She wasn't off color, was eating normally, and her milk looked, smelt and tasted fine. So just one of those things that happens from time to time in the smallholding world.<br />
I did a big house clean today (we have dinner guests tomorrow evening!).<br />
Brett did a massive weeding (4 wheelbarrowfuls) session in the vegetable garden (we have afternoon tea guests (gardeners) on Friday!), it's looking fantastic.<br />
<br />
3rd August<br />
It's hot again .......<br />
Jelisa milked normally this morning (phew).<br />
Due to the heat the cheese I made yesterday (chevre) didn't work - it has to stay out at room temp for 24 hours (room temp is 18 - 20C ours is nearer 40C!!!). I really want to give up making cheese atm (too many failures lately) but the goats keep producing milk so I have to process it.<br />
Sasha & Chris came round for drinks and food this evening, which was nice until Lily started crying, whimpering, holding up her paw, licking it, panting with her tongue hanging out - this is our stoic dog who blanches at nothing. We think she had been bitten/stung by some insect (spider, scorpion, centipede), ended up giving her 2/3 tablet of antihistamine - she started improving after 1/2 an hour, thank goodness.<br />
<br />
4th August<br />
What a horrible, horrible night, so hot, I couldn't sleep, 3.00 a.m. I was up getting wet towels.<br />
Nicky, Erd and Taliss came for afternoon tea; they didn't leave until nearly 7.00 and we were invited to Kimberly & Lawrence's. Ended up not going as it was 9.00 before we finished all our chores.<br />
<br />
5th August<br />
So another attempt at chevre, in an attempt to keep it cool I've wrapped a wet towel around the pot!<br />
We started podding our black eyed beans, not a quick task. Brett's method is to flog them to bits (which means a huge separating job at the end) whereas I shell individual pods (very time consuming).<br />
We sold seven of our Muscovy ducklings this afternoon.<br />
And this evening we're off to our village festa - if it runs true to form it will be rubbish!<br />
<br />
6th August<br />
It ran "true to form" ...........<br />
We arrived 9.00ish and it was 'dead', by 11.00 it was teeming with people (babies through to ancient), but nothing much happening, 11.30 a Euro-pop band (awful) started playing, 12.00 we'd had enough and came home! Oh yes, we did treat ourselves to some Portuguese doughnuts!<br />
The wet towel cooling method didn't work that well, but the curds were still soft so I put them, in their moulds, in the fridge (far too cold, but it's all I have).<br />
I've been 'googling' homemade cheese caves and might buy a greenhouse thermostat; these can be set to switch on (when temp goes above a certain point) and off (when it goes below a temp) - so a fridge is plugged in after the thermostat thus bypassing the fridge's internal thermostat. We have a small fridge which isn't being used (we just need ample solar to run it!).<br />
Today I made junket - it was 'interesting', the texture of creme caramel, I made it too sweet.<br />
Our supermarket in Penamacor was a Mini-Preso but it was taken over by the Jumbo group - it wasn't nearly as good. This weekend a new Mini-P opened in Penamacor, yay (funny what makes you happy!). One of the good things about Mini-P is they have a loyalty card and lots of offers, today we spent 29€ with savings of over 10€ - that's over 25%.<br />
<br />
7th August<br />
Hooray, slightly cooler today.<br />
And now Jelisa is on heat!<br />
Brett started cutting our winter logs.<br />
Wow there's a horrible argument going on, via social media, between all the immigrants/expats/foreigners, so much animosity and vitriol - thank goodness Brett and I don't mix much! I agree that everyone is allowed their own point of view but some of the comments are so nasty (and sometimes personal) ........<br />
<br />
8th August<br />
Happy ninth anniversary, Will & Gill, xxx.<br />
Only 26C, perfect for making cheese (today it's feta).<br />
<br />
9th August<br />
Nicky (and Taliss) came round, so that I could teach her to sew - we had a fun morning, with me slapping her hand as she touched knobs and dials on her (never used) sewing machine saying "what does this do?". She had made two curtains when she left and is returning on Saturday - she was a quick learner and will soon be making all manner of things.<br />
Brett continued cutting wood for winter.<br />
<br />
10th August<br />
Janet came round this afternoon, we all had a lovely long chat (we obviously don't get out much, there is so much going on we don't know about!).<br />
<br />
11th August<br />
Karina and Alex came to lunch, we hadn't seen them for ages. Karina showed me how she makes Mozzarella, it's a much quicker method than I use and the cheese stays white (and hopefully not rubbery!).<br />
<br />
12th August<br />
Another sewing day with Nicky and Taliss.<br />
<br />
13th August<br />
Fires all around us!!!!! Marc & Mieke have one right next to their house - they had to fell one of their trees that was ablaze, how scary.<br />
<br />
14th August<br />
Fires still raging, though it looks like Marc & Mieke's one is out (two Bombeiros slept on the road outside their house all night).<br />
Today I started another batch of aged Chevre and made Mozzarella a la Karina - it's perfect salad Mozzarella; white, soft and not a hint of rubberiness!<br />
Several of our friends were evacuated from their villages this evening. As soon as night fell we could see the mountains on firm<br />
<br />
15th August<br />
I helped Brett cutting firewood this morning - I fed whilst he used the chainsaw.<br />
We are surrounded by smoke (from the mountain fires), it's a very strange light, the birds are silent and black ash is falling all around us.<br />
We still haven't got our milking machine (FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS!!!!!) - I messaged the seller, again, threatening him with negative feedback if he didn't produce the necessary paperwork within the next few days.<br />
Villages closer to us are being evacuated this evening!<br />
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Our view of the Gardunha mountains this evening!</div>
<br />
16th August<br />
Hahahahaha, we harvested our 'field' of corn!!!!!<br />
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That's it, our WHOLE harvest!!!!</div>
I made another batch of Mozzarella (Brett likes it, so it gets eaten quickly), whilst Brett harvested the chickpeas.<br />
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8</div>
Several friends of ours had quintas caught up in the last couple of day's dreadful fires; many were evacuated, Tina (one of our craft group) chose to stay and fight the fire (brave or bloody stupid????), she says if she hadn't their house would have been destroyed<br />
<br />
17th August<br />
Happy Birthday Hen XXXXXXX P.s. you'll have to come and collect your present!!!<br />
40C .........<br />
Brinjal pickle making.<br />
Black eyed beans podded and winnowed, not enough to feed the animals through the winter!<br />
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But should be plenty for human consumption ...</div>
Too hot!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
18th August<br />
Took the day off, went to Benquerenca river beach with Vince & Lola.<br />
We took a picnic including some delicious Chevre I made SIX weeks ago - very mature.<br />
<br />
19th August<br />
HOT!!!!!!!<br />
I'm always complaining about the amount of time/work this smallholding lark takes; Brett got a tasted of it today when we made pear and apple juice .........<br />
First we picked the fruit: we had 50L tubs, one we managed to half fill we pears (that's still a lot of pears!) and another we filled with apples.<br />
Cleaning the equipment: just rinsing down, as it gets dusty and cobwebby in the shed.<br />
Then we prepared the fruit: cutting out rotten or maggoty bits and cutting into quarters, to make the next stage easier.<br />
Masticating (crushing) the fruit: we have a machine for this, but it is manually rotated which takes a lot of effort (Brett does most of it whilst I cling onto the machine to stop it moving and feed in the fruit.<br />
Pressing the pulp: we have a fruit press, we put in the pear pulp ...... nowhere near enough to operate the machine (!) so we had to add th.1ppe apples (thus mixing our juices, by now we just wanted to finish the process).<br />
Collecting and bottling the juice: ALL 5 LITRES of it ....... just 5 LITRES of juice from 75 litres of fruit!!!!!!!!!<br />
Cleaning the equipment: rinsing of the sticky, sweet, sugary bits of fruit and juice.<br />
And that took both of us ALL MORNING!<br />
On the plus side the juice is very tasty, like toffee apple flavour.<br />
A 'state of calamity' has been declare by the Portuguese Government with lots of things banned including ..... "A total ban on the use in all rural areas of combustion machinery, Internal or external, including all types of tractors and agricultural machinery, or forestry, as well as work in the forest using motor saws, chop saws and milling machines" - so no using tractor, trimmer, chainsaw, water pump (we probably shouldn't even be using the generator or car!).<br />
4.00 met up, at Bar do Clube, with Chris & Di and Bap.<br />
9.00 putting the animals away in the dark!!!!!<br />
9.15 as nothing prepared ate a dinner of crisps, chocalate and cups of tea, then went in the pool<br />
Another HUGE fire on the horizon, this time Corvilha way.<br />
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Our view of the Sierra de Estrella mountains this evening</div>
<br />
20th August<br />
A horrible hot night ........<br />
Followed by a horrible hot day (we're back in the 40s)........<br />
The Corvilha fire is still raging; information on the fire site (Fogos.pt) states there are 16 aircrafts,124 ground vehicles and 474 bombeiros fighting the fire.<br />
I am very aware that I need to travel back to the UK soon, but am worried that I might not even be able to get to Lisbon atm .........<br />
Portugal has only one railway line, in our area; it runs from Lisbon, through Castello Branco and on to Porto, and one road system (more or less running parallel with the railway line). Due to the fires most days sees sections of the train line not operating and many roads closed off. Something else to stress about!<br />
Made a big batch of Mozzarella.<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-60330546011716384502017-07-28T20:11:00.002+01:002017-07-28T20:11:41.036+01:00MAYBE I SHOULD BATHE IN MILK ..........14th July<br />
Only 43C today ....<br />
4L of milk today, most ever!<br />
Into Penamacor (BP check).<br />
We watered, weeded and picked ......<br />
Di is back in the UK, so we invited Chris for a couple of beers (three at the most) at bar do clube - we never learn! Seven beers later we stumbled home!!!!<br />
So much for me making cheese this evening!<br />
Then we bobbed around in the pool for a couple of hours ........<br />
<br />
15th July<br />
I had no choice but to make cheese today as we had 16L of milk filling the fridge and every available vessel (and that was before I milked this morning!<br />
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<br />
10L made into Halloumi and 6L trying another recipe for Mozzarella!<br />
12 hours later, I have a big jar of Halloumi (it works nearly everytime now ) and several balls of Mozzarella (still rather rubbery) and only 4L of milk (today milking) in the fridge (tomorrow it'll be 8L).<br />
We did have a couple of hours off when we went to visit Sarah & Greg (unfortunately Greg was working, so not at home). We've invited them to dinner Thursday evening.<br />
<br />
16th July<br />
Only 43C today!<br />
Another 4L milk ......<br />
A huge group of us went to the Idanha barragem for a picnic lunch - it was a fabulous afternoon, lots of bobbing around in the water!<br />
We picked our first two melons today (Gala), slightly under ripe but very sweet and juicy.<br />
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<br />
17th July<br />
40C (it's cooling down!!!).<br />
And another 4L of milk ........<br />
The morning was lost speaking to solicitors and writing letters (boring stuff). While we were on the phone Brett was jiggling around playing with his shorts; after the call he dropped his shorts and a centipede dropped out (I didn't see it). We have these big centipedes here (Scolopendra cingulata, also known as Megarian banded centipede, or the Mediterranean banded centipede), it has a rather nasty bite (and can cause anaphylactic shock)- fortunately Brett didn't react.<br />
It's the time of year when harvesting produce gets boring! There's just so much to pick; then we have to eat or process it. Apart from basics like salt, pepper, sugar/honey, flour, rice, pasta etc every meal is prepare from ingredients we've grown/raised. We are eating pretty much a vegan/vegetarian diet atm (very occasionally we eat meat to make room in the freezer!). But I shouldn't moan, we came here to be self sufficient and we're more or less achieving it (it's just bloody hard, continuous, work!).<br />
Anyway just finished dinner and we're off to the pool with a couple of beers!!!!<br />
<br />
18th July<br />
We are no longer using any shop bought milk but we still had 11L of goat's milk in the fridge. So today I made (a very long winded) cheddar, took me all day.<br />
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Brett harvested carrots and beetroot. <br />
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The carrots went into a tub of damp sand and the beetroot cooked for pickling.<br />
<br />
19th July<br />
A bit cooler today, only 31C - I can cope with this.<br />
Pickled beetroot made.<br />
Sundried tomatoes started.<br />
Goat's milk yoghurt sieved to thicken.<br />
More melons picked (and tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and cabbage).<br />
<br />
20th July<br />
Greg & Sarah are coming to dinner tonight, so I spent all day cooking and cleaning.<br />
Everything for dinner is from the quinta. Starter; A meze of Presunto ham, mozzarella, melon (watermelon and Gala) and cherry tomatoes. Main: Roast chicken, smashed potatoes, ratatouille, lemon glazed carrots. Puddin': Creme caramel (made with goat's milk).<br />
Brett harvested the potatoes, not a particularly good yield - as he said if we needed to grow potatoes to survive we'd be dead! We get blight, always have, it was here when we came - we thought we'd avoid it in a hot, dry climate.<br />
<br />
21st July<br />
Happy Birthday Saskia xxx<br />
We had a good evening, sitting out on the decking; eating, drinking and talking. We didn't get to bed until gone 1.00.<br />
Today's cheese is Creamy Feta (slow ferment method), it has to ferment at room temperature for 24 hours - I've put it in the darkest corner of the kitchen to keep it as cool as possible.<br />
Brett is really into vegetable gardening this year and it shows, far less weeds than in past years.<br />
Claire brought us an amazing book on fermentation (The Art of Fermentation, Sander Ellix Katz); today I prepared a bucketful of tomatoes to make Conserva Cruda Di Pomodoro (Fermented Tomato Conserve).<br />
<br />
22nd July<br />
Every other day we thoroughly water our vegetables (the day in between we water our field of maize) and harvest all our ripe produce - today's offering: a big bucket of courgettes, tomatoes and peppers (more work for me processing this lot).<br />
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1.5L milk out in the heat, making yoghurt; it's not as creamy as Greek yoghurt, but I can make it thick by straining out some of the whey AND it's free!<br />
24 hours later and the Feta looks as if it's going to work! Last time I used this method (slow ferment) I used a buttermilk culture (mesophilic) as my starter and it didn't work; instead of the whey fermenting and the curds sinking, the curds fermented and floated (it wasn't wasted, the pigs liked it!). This time I used active whey as my starter, saved from making the cheddar, and I have lovely soft sunken curds (which now have to drain in mould for 24 hours). This means I can now experiment with making aged Chevre.<br />
The cheddar has had two days air drying next stage was cloth wrapping it with butter muslin (coconut oil was used to hold it together - traditionally this would have been lard). Now it'll mature for a few weeks (unfortunately in the fridge as we have no cellar or cool areas).<br />
More tomatoes sundrying; we've nearly finished the seven big bags I made last year. Mainly blitzed up with olive oil to make a fabulous paste; great as the sauce for pizza,on toasted bread as part of a meze or simply used as flavouring in sauces/soups).<br />
This evening we are going to the local produce festa in Penamacor, it was brilliant last year. However as the time to go out gets nearer we're becoming less and less enthusiastic.<br />
<br />
23rd July<br />
We went to the festa last night and it was disappointing. Nowhere near as much going on as last year, not that many people, the stalls were 'same old, same old'. We ate from a food stall (Brett had Leito cooked in bread, I had pizza), it was ok, but Brett still felt hungry. So we went to JCJ's (Brett had a burger and we shared some chips). Then we went home.<br />
Jelisa is not up to par; she stood on the milking table not eating and spitting out her cud! She could be on heat (it doesn't feel like heat) or she could have eaten something that disagrees with her.<br />
My Conserva Cruda Di Pomodoro has a white mould on it (it's supposed too!) I'm so excited.<br />
Today I made a fermented salsa (tomatoes, onion, garlic, pepper, active whey and salt). It'll be ready in a few days.<br />
The feta cheese is out of the mould and air drying for 24 hours. And I'm trying to make the slow Mozzarella again (using whey as my starter). These slow ferment recipes take days to process (but I'm not using any chemicals just natural organisms), fortunately at lot of the time is just hanging around.<br />
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Top (L to R): sundries tomatoes, yoghurt, Conserva Cruda Di Pomodoro</div>
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Bottom: sausages, mozzarella, feta</div>
A big fire, of signifigance, between us and Escalos de Cima .........<br />
<br />
24th July<br />
Happy Birthday Claire! Xxx<br />
Jelisa is back to normal, apart from a litre less milk (she obviously didn't eat much yesterday).<br />
Mozzarella is still rubbery - I think I'll give up try g to make it<br />
Mark is over for a flying visit, so he came to dinner and stayed overnight.<br />
<br />
25th July<br />
The heat is coming back! And so are the wildfires - they're in Castelo Branco region this time ......<br />
<br />
26th<br />
The Conserva Cruda Di Pomodoro was ready for the next step; removing the skins and seeds, then straining through cheese cloth - well my mouli sieve didn't work, a metal sieve was not much better, I ended up using the juicer (which is crap) and the amount left is pitiful!<br />
Back to cheese making experiments; today I started an aged Chevre, Crottin (translation from French apparently is little turd!). It has to ferment for a couple of days, until a white mould grows on it (unfortunately room temperature here is rather hot).<br />
<br />
27th July<br />
And this morning my curds are floating, which means they have yeast fermenting away in them - I'm 100% sure it's the temperature (perfect temp for bread making), it will have to go to the pigs .....<br />
So we decided to have a day off and go to the barragem. We left the quinta, drove along the track to the village and there's a HUGE boulder in the middle of the road, <br />
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no way around it (thank goodness we weren't fleeing from a fire!). We had to back up, go back to the house for crow bar, shovel and rope. Whilst we were moving it Joao & Hilda turned up - they thought we'd crashed the car.<br />
LOST IN TRANSLATION: We told them we were off to Meimao (and Meimoa to eat); he was saying (in Portuguese) the 'soupa de pedra' was good, then he looked at his watch and seemed to be saying come and quickly have some soup with us ...... we said "We don't understand", but he was bring his fingers to his lips (eat food), pointing towards his house, saying "rapido" - so we said "ok" (couldn't think what else to say!). Then, as we drove to their house, we realised/decided he said 'go quickly they start serving at 12.00' (or words to the effect). Oh dear, our Portuguese 'nao es bon!'.<br />
This evening we harvested half our black eyed beans.<br />
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Beans before harvest</div>
<br />Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-78095428264097339332017-07-13T22:43:00.000+01:002017-07-13T22:43:00.817+01:00SUMMERTIME, but the living's not easy .......2nd July<br />
We spent all morning in the vegetable garden - weeding, watering, harvesting (beans, onions, beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, aubergine .........). For their first time ever we have managed to grow melons, the only problem is we don't know when to pick them!<br />
Wow, my UK phone costs 40p/minute to ring anywhere in Europe (it used to cost 4p before roaming charges were dropped) and my Portuguese phone costs me 50c/minute to ring UK - I need to find a better deal.<br />
This afternoon was spent making cheese (Halloumi). This self sufficiency lark is very time consuming!<br />
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Look a</div>
Flippin' heck, I caught Brett sneaking out of the house with apple cider vinegar (bought, therefore expensive, as I have run out of homemade); he was going to use it to clean the car's windows!!!!! I 'squawked', rescued the ACV and gave him white vinegar from my studio (he refused to try my homemade red wine vinegar!).<br />
And then he went to give the beetroot leaves, which I had washing in a bucket of water, to the pigs - they were earmarked for the curry!<br />
<br />
3rd July<br />
Wendy & Kevin gave us some plums, I made jam ....<br />
Wildfire between our village and the next this evening (21 fire engines, 5 planes, 64 people); out now (phew!).<br />
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<br />
4th July<br />
Every other day our mornings are full ......<br />
Get up<br />
Animals out and fed<br />
Milk goats (3L today)<br />
Breakfast<br />
Weeding, watering and harvesting<br />
Feeding goats, sheep and pigs with the weeds<br />
Back to the house (for a well earned drink) ....... it's 12.30!!!!!<br />
Vegetarian lunch, mostly from the quinta: carrot dip, crisps (bought), pickled cabbage/sauerkraut, goat cheese; actually Brett's wasn't veggie, he had sausage rolls (our pork).<br />
Vegetarian dinner, ALL from the quinta: Saganaki cheese (well our version - fried Mozzarella), beetroot salad, carrot salad, beer (bought!).<br />
Need to eat more beans .......<br />
Made clementine cake for tomorrow afternoon.<br />
<br />
5th July<br />
Up at 6.30! Don't know why, I was awake ........<br />
Another 3L from the goat's, need to make cheese but we have guests coming this afternoon (Nicky, she and her husband bought P&M's place, and Taliss, her daughter). Nicky wants me to teach her how to sew.<br />
Ew, I saw the young Billy pee on his face!!!! He seemed to be able to control his penis, so he was peeing forwards, then he turned his head so it caught the flow. He's in with our milking females and he thinks the smell makes him attractive to them! He's only in with them because he jumped out of the sheep field .......<br />
Nicky is hosting a beginner's fermentation workshop - I gave her my Kombucha Scoby 'hotel' (about a year's worth of spare Scobys).<br />
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<br />
6th July<br />
Cheese making today as I had 11.5L of milk in the fridge. 7.5L made into Mozzarella <br />
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and 4L is clabbering, so I can make some Chevre ....... and that was most of my day gone! Until I discovered the whey from the Mozzarella had split - so I had to make Ricotta!<br />
<br />
7th July<br />
Happy Birthday Lesley xxx<br />
So our bank (Norwich & Peterborough), in it's wisdom, has decided to close it's current accounts section. We chose it because it had no oversea fees for purchases or cash withdrawl (it did have it's limitations - €250/day cash limit). So looked around for a better deal (Money Saving Expert) and Halifax Clarity Credit card came out top (as long as you pay off the balance each month). Great, I have a Halifax current account (my money gets transferred from there into N&P each month) so this should be easy - wrong!!!! We have a Portuguese address (we have a UK one too, but we're not there obviously) and therefore not eligible for the card (EVEN THOUGH I BANK WITH THEM ALREADY) how absolutely ridiculous. And that goes for all UK banks and credit cards. My Halifax card charges 2.75% plus £1.50 per cash withdrawl (ATMs here have a 200€ limit per transaction)......so if anyone has got any good ideas?????<br />
<br />
8th July<br />
Happy Birthday Lauren xxx<br />
A typical smallholding start to the day, as in you never know when something unexpected is going to happen! Whilst letting out and feeding the geese I could hear plaintive bleating, so went to investigate.<br />
The young Billy (the one who jumped out of the field to be with the milking females) had jumped back into the field overnight with the rest of the flock. He had managed to get his foot through the stock fence as he went over, twisting the second strand down over the top strand, thus snaring his lower leg. He was well and truly stuck; three feet on the ground and a back leg caught at the top of the fence. We needed wire cutters to release him (he can't put his foot to the ground atm) - of course the fence is ruined!!!<br />
The billys and rams are in full-on rutting mode; it's mayhem in the field, they're fighting and molesting the females, egged on by Jelisa and Lucy who are flirting from the other side of the fence - they'll get their comeuppance tomorrow as they're being put in the field with the rest of the flock!.<br />
<br />
9th July<br />
Happy Birthday Rebecca xxx<br />
As Brett is working next week we took today off and went to Meimao barragem.<br />
As soon as I start wearing sandals I have problems with dry cracking feet (always have, they're fine if I wear socks). I have a pathetic, (12v) battery operated, machine that sands off the dry skin, but it's not very powerful or effective. So Brett has loaned me his mini orbital sander (180 Watts, I can only use it when the generator is on) - it's scary, but it does the job! I wonder if chiropodists use them? Ok, looked it up; Chiropodists use razor blades - I wouldn't try that myself!<br />
<br />
10th July<br />
Brett was up at 6.00 .... <br />
I tried out a different Mozzarella recipe, it is a much longer method than the one I usually use (it's titled 'traditional'), fingers crossed I get the salad Mozzarella this time.<br />
6 hours later - I didn't! It didn't stretch, it tastes and sounds (squeaky) like Halloumi, so I'll try making Saganaki cheese with it.<br />
<br />
11th July<br />
Brett was off before 7.00 again.<br />
37C .......<br />
I did all the animal chores and the washing - boring but necessary jobs.<br />
Tomorrow we're off to CB (we have a long shopping list on our way back we're calling in on Amelia (Mark's friend) who is going to introduce us to Bill - a prospective stained glass window customer!<br />
<br />
12th July<br />
40+ ......<br />
We had a successful shopping trip - I even managed to buy some sandals!<br />
Bill wants a transom (a glass panel above his front door) but ...... he doesn't have a preference for colors or design, "You're the artist, you decide. Whatever is easiest for you", was his input! His budget? "As cheap as possible" - do I really want this commission?????<br />
After dinner, it was so hot, we stripped off and spent an hour in the pool; it was lovely just bobbing around and putting the world to rights. Then we came in, looked at camper vans and drank beer. We're both in a good place at the moment.<br />
<br />
13th July<br />
It's going to be a hot one; it's 10.00 and already 34.5C (in the shade) ............<br />
3.00 44.5C: that is hot, and even hotter if you go out of the shade. All our tubs of water were too hot to put your hand in!<br />
We harvested a load of vegetables and went down to introduce ourselves to our new neighbour (Eloise) - Chris & Sasha were there working, they looked hot and tired.<br />
We bobbed around in the pool again this evening, it really cools your core temperature. Then we came in and drank beer - it's the most thirst quenching drink!Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-59116906682967679332017-07-01T21:43:00.000+01:002017-07-07T13:34:24.744+01:00WEEDING & WATERING ........17th June<br />
43C!!!!!!<br />
We got 133 bales of hay (at a cost of 70c per bale = 93€) from our three fields.<br />
As rain is forecast for the next three days Brett wanted to get it under cover (a dirty, itchy job); I drove the truck Brett did the dirty, itchy bit!<br />
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This evening was an annual village festa (actually it started at noon), everything was free - lunch, beer, dinner. We went after we'd put our animals away; Greg & Sarah had been there since 12.00! Chris & Di since 4.00! We had a lot of catching up to do!!!!! But we managed!<br />
Dinner was bread, <span style="font-family: sans-serif;">barbecued </span>pork and sardines (no vegetables) and red wine.<br />
Bap's traditional village group played, a fabulous dancing group danced (the men wore wide brimmed hats), we left when the 'Euro-pop' group were on!!!!!<br />
<br />
18th June<br />
Dreadful, dreadful news masses of people killed (62 so far) some in their cars trying to flee massive forest fires in the Coimbra region.<br />
This story has dominated Facebook today; people trying to contact loved ones, updates on the 'worst wildfire' since records began, offers of food, clothes and accommodation. And around us there's a haze, we can't see the mountains, we can hardly see the village water tower. And it's only June!<br />
<br />
19th June<br />
Last sheep shorn! He was a big boy (last year's ram lamb, about 16 months) and a real struggler - we missed Claire's help.<br />
Nicky & Rich messaged us, they're coming round tomorrow evening.<br />
A fabulous electrical storm this evening; but, as the fires on Saturday were probably started by lightening, rather scary!<br />
<br />
<br />
20th June<br />
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL!!!!!!!🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈xxxx<br />
We're really hot in bed, unable to sleep; we've tried covering ourselves with wet towels and having a fan on - it works to a degree, but not that well. Brett has had an idea; as it's colder outside at night we need to bring the cold air in, so ........ we're going to put a hole in the bedroom wall and insert an extractor fan (the opposite way round to usual) so it will suck the outside air into the bedroom. Today we went into CB to buy the extractor fan and bits and pieces (came to about 20€).<br />
We went in late-ish, so we could get worm tablets for Lily (the vet opens at 3.00). Everything took so long, we didn't get home until gone 5.00 (Nicky and Rich arriving at 6.30!).<br />
A mad rush to get food organised (and wash the floor) and we were ready for guests! Fortunately N&R are easy guests, once they arrived we relaxed and had a good evening.<br />
<br />
21st June<br />
The nights start drawing in ........<br />
Brett installed the extractor fan.<br />
I have a new cheese book and have found a traditional (slower) method for making a creamy salad Mozzarella (the curds are left in the whey overnight to ferment) - mine is always a bit rubbery (so best used on pizzas!).<br />
<br />
22nd June<br />
The extractor fan worked, it was still warm (it isn't air con. so can't work miracles) but far more comfortable than of late - well done Brett.<br />
My mozzarella didn't work - the curds wouldn't hold together, perhaps the room temp was too hot?<br />
We should have known better!!!! "We're going to the bar at 4.00 for a quick drink" said Chris & Di - five and a half hours later (it was dark) we arrived home to put our bemused (but thankfully safe) animals away! They are such a bad influence!<br />
<br />
23rd June<br />
House tidying with a hangover is not fun .......<br />
Debbie & David arrived one and a half hours late as their train broke down - it was great to see them.<br />
We started by making them pick their dinner (a bucket of French beans).<br />
<br />
24th June<br />
Didn't do much, well obviously quinta chores (including lots of gardening), and erecting the swimming pool - pity the temperatures have dropped (they'll soon heat up).<br />
<br />
25th June<br />
Happy Birthday Pam xxx<br />
Everyone but me spent the afternoon weeding the vegetable field. I was in my studio cutting out a large bird lino cut and then printing onto my green dress - I'm so happy with the results ......<br />
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The pink background pattern is printed from a plastic placemat!</div>
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The birds are linocuts</div>
<br />
26th June<br />
Started making Chevre (10L milk) from my new book (slow ferment method) before we went out.<br />
Went to Meimao for the day, treated to lunch.<br />
The curds were fermenting and bubbling (not supposed to) when we got home, we think because our 'room temperature' is too hot atm. Strained the curd (as it wasn't going to make Chevre) and put it into a mould to see if it could be rescued.<br />
<br />
27th June<br />
Lots of weeding and watering.<br />
Yesterday's 'Chevre' is very crumbly, but it works well on tomato salad (already picking our own tomatoes).<br />
Helped Debbie print fish one of her dresses, last time she did a linocut she was at school (a long time ago!!!!). She was very pleased with the results.<br />
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This evening it rained ........<br />
<br />
28th June<br />
Went to Monsanto (we did take D&D there on a previous visit, in 2015, but it was foggy!) and then we were treated to lunch in Idanha.<br />
On our way back home we drove through Proenca a Velha: so stopped off at the Junta to ask about our oil. WE HAVE OUR OIL!!!!!! A measly 8L from 96kgs of olives, should last us a few months (probably not until next olive harvest). We also picked up D&T's oil, which we will drop off tomorrow.<br />
This week has gone very quickly, D&D are off first thing in the morning.<br />
<br />
29th June<br />
Up at 6.30, in CB by 8.00 ("goodbye D&D, see you next year"), at T&D's by 8.40, back home and milking the goats by 9.30 .........<br />
Relaxed for the rest of the day (apart for some hoovering, as Looby is shedding dreadfully).<br />
<br />
30th June<br />
Lots of weeding today ........<br />
Stuart & Helen go back to the UK tomorrow so we went to the bar for a few hours, as C&D weren't with us we managed to get home before dark!<br />
<br />
1st July<br />
We had a lovely lunch and gossip at Wendy & Kevin's today.<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-59320298972120025132017-06-17T13:16:00.001+01:002017-06-18T09:27:01.229+01:00"YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY COLANDERS" don't ask ........1st June<br />
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Claire volunteered to weed the herb bed (Jasmine helped too!).<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZ0mqqTsRrJOzYV8FTKMs1nrYMmYlrFqMwCrBpG43kPOIsenE3DBLZhkxvy5f6O_0WNSWvYJ2gQr3bZQJL3t0c4Minqaltk1AVN8uFNMVuQWTqIOAWSPBsg3rcG8s_joDuZ8EEwyYqYXo/s1600/20170531_153617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZ0mqqTsRrJOzYV8FTKMs1nrYMmYlrFqMwCrBpG43kPOIsenE3DBLZhkxvy5f6O_0WNSWvYJ2gQr3bZQJL3t0c4Minqaltk1AVN8uFNMVuQWTqIOAWSPBsg3rcG8s_joDuZ8EEwyYqYXo/s320/20170531_153617.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Then we stuffed the sausages; we're getting quite adept at the sausage linking .......<br />
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<br />
2nd June<br />
Happy Birthday Jean. Xxx<br />
The kiln firing was rather disappointing, it was overfired (spiky), but I still managed to make up a bunting garland for our decking (with all the 'seconds').<br />
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Brett carried on haymaking, I made him birthday cake (chocolate fridge cake).<br />
5.00 we accepted Chris & Di's invitation to "drinks down the bar" (with Bap and Greg & Sarah) - of course we didn't get home 'til gone 8.00!!!<br />
<br />
3rd June<br />
Happy Birthday Brett XXXXX<br />
So Brett's birthday treat was 'allowing' him to spend the day haymaking - he honestly wanted to!<br />
His present is 'in the post', truly!<br />
Claire brought balloons and candles; we decorated the decking and had afternoon 'birthday tea.<br />
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4th June<br />
On Friday we made Sunday lunchtime plans with C&D. We made potato, chard and cheese pasties and took some birthday 'cake'.<br />
We've decided to separate the mothers and kids overnight (so we get milk in the mornings).<br />
<br />
5th June<br />
2.5L of milk ......<br />
I've trained our 'workaway' to milk!<br />
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<br />
Into Fundao to buy lots of plugs (onion, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce) - lots of work for this evening!<br />
Brett finished the big field and started cutting the goose field.<br />
So about 200 onions planted and my bum hurts!<br />
<br />
6th June<br />
HOT!!!!<br />
3L of milk ......<br />
The cat gets hot too!<br />
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Claire and I made Chevre (flavored with onion plug tops and garlic - Boursin).<br />
Gardening and haymaking, we're going to take the day off tomorrow and go to Meimao barragem.<br />
<br />
7th June<br />
2.5L of milk<br />
36C in the shade ........<br />
We decided to have a proper day off and eat lunch in the café at the barragem (they do prawns and octopus), so after doing all our chores (and Brett watching the rugby) we packed the truck with loungers, towels, kindles, water etc and off we set ........ only to find that the café was only selling drinks and ice creams (no food menu)! But we were fine; we stayed there until lunch time, then drove back to Meimoa and had the 7€ menu de dia at the restaurant (consisted of (1) bread and olives, (2) soup, (3) turkey, chips and salad, (4) choice of puddings (5) wine or beer,(6) coffee). Then we went and laid by the river beach.<br />
1L of milk this evening .......<br />
<br />
8th June<br />
36C (shade) ............<br />
3L of milk but I had to fight for it ... I think the goats are on heat again! They were not interested in food and both had to be dragged onto the decking.<br />
Our 'workaway' is earning her keep; Claire and I spent two hours this morning and two hours this afternoon micro-weeding the chickpeas, mainly purslane (two wheelbarrows full). We're starting to ache ......<br />
<br />
9th June<br />
And now I can't move, my back is giving me gyp!<br />
Claire and spent the afternoon in the studio, making bunting. Brett was haymaking.<br />
<br />
10th June<br />
Not much better .......<br />
We spent most of the morning at Diane & Thomas's; we're borrowing their electric sheep shears (ours are broken), so that we can shear our sheep this week (not looking forward to it!).<br />
The bunting was good (slightly underfired if anything).<br />
Brett used our new toy, the wheel rake, to turn the hay .....<br />
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11th June<br />
Today we had a day off; I got up at 8.00 and we had finished all our chores by 12.00!!!!<br />
We took a picnic to the baragem at Idanha - it was lovely.<br />
But then we came back home to the dreaded sheep shearing!!!!<br />
Well, as anticipated, it didn't go brilliantly; after about 45 mins we had a half shorn sheep and gave up. <br />
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Their wool is so thick the shears can't cope, we're going to buy some hand shears tomorrow and then try again (slow & steady, the electric shears are scary).<br />
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12th June<br />
Bloody hot night, hardly slept.<br />
Oh no it's got to 40C (in the shade) ........<br />
CB was nice, as lots of the shops have air con. We got the hand shears and have made the decision to shear early morning, while it's still cool.<br />
Lots of the photos are courtesy Claire this post (the 'arty' ones).<br />
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One of our boys</div>
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Ducklings .....</div>
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13th June<br />
6.00 start!<br />
One sheep sheared with hand shears (1 hour 30 mins); then we had breakfast and milked the goats, second sheep sheared with a combination of hand and electric shears (about an hour).<br />
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Hand sheared on right (obviously)</div>
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Electric clippered to left (best yet!)</div>
We thought about having another go this evening, but it was too hot (38).<br />
Claire made 'Cheddar' cheese with 10L milk to take home.<br />
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Stuffed (Chevre) courgette flowers in beer batter</div>
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14th June<br />
6.00 start (again)<br />
Two sheep shorn (electric shears mainly) and first sheep tidied up!<br />
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Getting the hang of this now ......</div>
Andrew bartered some potatoes and garlic for eggs, which we exchanged this morning on a water collection (drinking water from the fonte) trip on our way back through the village we scrumped some lemons (they were lying in the road), so we came home with a load of FREE food & drink: a box of new potatoes, garlic, big bag of lemons and 30L of drinking water<br />
Claire made orange juice (our oranges) and lemon juice (scrumped).<br />
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I helped Claire make (well I directed whilst she made) two aprons (one baby, one adult) to take back to Denmark.<br />
This evening we went to O Jardim for dinner (the owner was very jolly for a change, the food was ok).<br />
Tomorrow we shear BIG ram - not looking forward to that!<br />
<br />
15th June<br />
Nos (internet) is down.<br />
We all overslept and didn't get going until nearly 7.00. The ram is HUGE and very STRONG, we had a game plan; we'd bring the sheep out of the field, via the tarpaulin, then Brett would wrestle him to the ground, I would lead the sheep off to the field whilst Brett and Claire would tie his feet and restrain him ........ it worked at treat!!!!! He struggled, but no more than any of the others and he sheared like a dream (probably because he's so solid) and he was the quickest yet. I got up real close and personal dagging his backend and trimming his scrotum (this is the ram that butted me head on in both my knees!). <br />
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Ram in foreground </div>
We're feeling very relieved! Only one sheep (last year's ram lamb) to go .......<br />
As it was Claire's last day we spent the day at Meimao baragem with a picnic. <br />
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There were a couple of exhibitionist English females waxing their armpits - why???? The water was fabulously cold, I just bobbed around on a noodle!<br />
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Sunset!</div>
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16th June<br />
Claire went first thing (bus from Fundao to Porto). We're going to really miss her, she's been a great help; helping me in the garden so Brett was free to make hay, getting stuck in with the sheep shearing, milking goats, picking oranges and making orange juice, scrumping lemons, getting up early to weed vegetables, let out and feed the poultry etc. It's been a good two weeks .........<br />
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Starting to get regular harvests from the vegetable garden</div>
The temperature soared to 42C, in the shade; horribly hot - we need our pool!<br />
Tomorrow our hay gets baled.<br />
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17th June<br />
We have our own bales of hay - another of our many 'firsts' since we've been in Portugal.<br />
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A short list of 'firsts':</div>
<div style="font-family: sans-serif;">
~Generate our own electricity</div>
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~Breed pigs (poorly!)<br />
~Produce our own olive oil<br />
~Make wine solely from grapes</div>
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~Milk goats</div>
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~Make cheese</div>
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~Spin wool</div>
<div style="font-family: sans-serif;">
~Bale our own hay</div>
Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-89369502134829183542017-06-05T21:13:00.000+01:002017-06-05T21:13:44.361+01:00SUMMER HAS COME EARLY .......9th May<br />
Rain was forecast, but didn't materialise - we need it for the field of corn we sowed a couple of days ago.<br />
Heavy rain is forecast tomorrow; which means I can have a kiln firing, so today I packed the kiln to the gunnels!<br />
This evening we went to M&M's new house for dinner (with Vince & Lola and Karina); of course it is lovely, lots of colored bottles embedded in walls, lime plaster (over straw bales) walls (not a straight line in sight), handbuilt cupboards which could happily grace a hobbit's home - I could go on and on, it's very quirky with lots of interesting details!<br />
<br />
10th May<br />
Where's the day of rain that was forecast????? Put the generator on regardless, as I needed to fire the kiln.<br />
The rain appeared this afternoon; very cold and heavy. We put the ewe with the new twins in the dog shed and opened the field gate and sheep shed, for the rest of the flock - the goats immediately sought shelter.<br />
A low milk yield today 1.5L this morning and ZERO this afternoon - the kids feed from their mums far more when it's raining (boredom eating) and the mums don't feed much, because they are sheltering, so less milk is being produced (that's our theory/observations).<br />
<br />
11th May<br />
Cold, wet and miserable ...........<br />
I think it's going to be another low milk day (1.25L this morning).<br />
Hooray, I finished Rebecca & Paul's wedding present! <br />
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I hung it up on the decking to photograph, I don't want to take it down (I'll have to make one for us).<br />
I was right about the low milk day - another ZERO litres this afternoon; we've had thunderstorms on and off all day, so the goats have been sheltering in the pole barn - nothing for them to eat in there.<br />
<br />
11th May<br />
Ok I've had enough of the rain now!!! I'm back in winter clothes.<br />
I'm rubbish at technology; I've been trying to edit my cover photo and header on my Quinta Glass page - I just can't find the buttons to press to upload new photos, it's very stress making ...... managed the header after several attempts, but can't find anyway to change the cover - I give up!!!!<br />
Last week when we went into CB we saw some garden furniture that was really cheap; a table, four chairs and an umbrella for less than 100€ (99.99!). A bit modern for our taste, but too cheap to be choosy - of course it wasn't in stock! So this afternoon we took a trip into town to see if it was back in stock - it was! We came home so excited, unpacked the box ....... One chair was put together wrongly, two chairs had pop rivets badly put in and one had rivets missing!!!! Then we spent the next hour trying to assemble the table (turned out the instructions were wrong, really truly they were!*). But it's erected now and our lower deck looks very smart.<br />
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*In fact the whole thing is very poorly constructed (the price was too good to be true!).<br />
Every year, around this time, Looby goes off her food; she just stops eating, doesn't even get up when I serve their meals. The only way I can get her to eat is to hand feed her, one piece at a time (attention seeking?). Today we're trying cat biscuits mixed in with the dog biscuits.<br />
<br />
13th May<br />
Happy Birthday Jane! Xxx<br />
A bit dull, but dry ......<br />
We're meeting T&D at the soup festa, in Proenca a Velha, this afternoon. Then going en masse, to the olive press, to demand our oil!!!!<br />
Well that was a waste of time!!!!! Couldn't find anyone to take responsibility for our oil, it was suggested we come back on a weekday when the Junta is open. The soup bit of the festa happens tomorrow, with hundreds of different soups to taste and vote for.<br />
<br />
14th May<br />
So in the night I had a brilliant idea; Georgia and Hazel are in milk, but we don't need more, so we were going to let them dry up, then I thought of my idea - give the goats to Thomas & Diane on a long term loan (as they're not getting milk from their cow).<br />
The first ever Spring Fair in Penamacor (a collaboration between the Camara, us (the immigrants) and a Spanish association) was a resounding success. Fantastic atmosphere, lots of attendees and lots of fun.<br />
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Then I came home to a fridge full of milk!!!! 5L is being clabbered overnight for Chevre and 7.5L I made into Halloumi (I was still making cheese at gone 10.00 p.m.).<br />
And I have earache again!<br />
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<br />
15th May<br />
Margo (our cat stealing neighbour) has sold up (she moved in last September) and guess who's back????? Jasmine, our unloyal cat; the new neighbour hasn't moved in yet, so she could well dessert us again!<br />
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Made Chevre.<br />
<br />
16th May<br />
Georgia and Hazel have gone! And I feel quite sad, they were our first goats here (along with Billy, Hazel's brother).<br />
Whilst cleaning the loft bedroom, for Rebecca & Paul's visit, I banged my head on the low beam (the same one I spend all my time saying "mind the beam" when people go up there); I have a bump, a headache and feel slightly sick - I'm sure I have concussion (Brett thinks I'm being overly dramatic ....... dramatic moi???).<br />
Brett is blocking up the new bathroom, he's nearly at window height.<br />
The chickpeas, beans and corn are all starting to coming through in our field, no sign of the mangle wurzels.<br />
Every evening we do an hour or so of weeding, its rather satisfying and the weeds are fed to the pigs. However this evening's session was horrendous, so many biting flies, I'm covered in itchy bites - they can even bite through clothing.<br />
<br />
17th May<br />
A very successful trip into CB; we got all the stuff for our field irrigation for 135€ (far better than 600€!) - we asked Reuben (in Regacentro) to advise us, we're very pleased with the outcome.<br />
I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the dresser and everything on it (I don't do it very often!), it looks all 'sparkly'!<br />
Oh no!!!!! We have Colorado potato beetle larvae on our potatoes ...........<br />
<br />
18th May<br />
I spent the day cleaning, tidying, making beds, even cleaning windows - the house is sparkling!<br />
<br />
19th May<br />
Rebecca & Paul arrived mid afternoon, they had been up since 4.00 so we had a relaxed evening. I think they liked their wedding present - they made all the right noises.<br />
<br />
20th May<br />
We chose the right weekend for a trip to Idanha a Velha, they were having a festa! In fact nothing much was happening ...... loud music, a tombola stall (every festa has one) and a BBQ - Rebecca & Paul treated us to lunch. On the way home we picked ELDERFLOWER (for champagne).<br />
As we ate a big meal at lunchtime I prepared a very simple dinner (mainly from the picnic we'd originally taken for lunch) - cheese, ham (both our own of course!), salads, bread, hummus, fried pita and crisps.<br />
We have these birds that sing all night, I thought they were just ordinary birds - turns out they're Nightingales (we 'googled' their song).<br />
<br />
21st May<br />
Milk overload (again)! <br />
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2L </div>
Rebecca brought citric acid, so I made my first ever Mozzarella - very impressed, and it only takes 2 - 3 hours.<br />
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So we had to have Mozzarella and tomato salad with dinner; therefore our roast pork meal became pork and salad in wraps with mayo and chili jam AND Mozzarella and tomato salad! Very nice .......<br />
<br />
22nd May<br />
And they've gone! A lovely, if short, visit. Feel a little bit flat.<br />
Jelisa and Lucy gave 2L and 1L of milk respectively this morning; once again I had milk overload - I made more Mozzarella (with 7.5L of milk, that's the maximum size pot I have = 1.25lbs of cheese). And I started off my Elderflower champagne (2L).<br />
<br />
23rd May<br />
34C (the temperature's rising ........)<br />
3.25L of milk this morning - I'll need to make cheese tomorrow, as today we popped into CB (to book car in for it's MOT, to get more connections and pipes for the irrigation system, buy some hand tools for weeding and BEER from Lidl!).<br />
We've invited our vegetarian friends (Chris & Di and Andrew) and Stuart for dinner on Friday (as we have lots of cheese!); we'll have Halloumi, watermelon and mint for a starter, pizza (with Mozzarella) for main and trifle (because it's easy) for dessert. Andrew will have to have a tour of the garden so Brett is mowing all the verges and we're going to attack the weeds in the veg garden this evening ......<br />
<br />
24th May<br />
Both female goats were off their food this morning (the boys were fine) and Lucy had to be chased to get her onto the decking - we think they're on heat (so do we want more goat kids???? We have had a message from someone who wants female kids next year!).<br />
I couldn't even get Lucy onto the decking this evening; fortunately she didn't need milking<br />
This evening we went to dinner at Vince (Irish, but also speaks French) & Lola's (French, also speaks English and Portuguese) along with Marc & Meike (Belgian, speak French, Dutch, English and Portuguese) and Marieke (French, speaks only French) & Helder (Portuguese, also speaks French) - interesting evening, most of the conversation was in a kind of pigeon French/Portuguese! We ate outside, entertained by an electrical storm in the distance.<br />
<br />
25th May<br />
HOT 35/36C ............<br />
Wow milk yield is low today 1/2L (Jelisa, morning milk) after several days of 3.5L. The goats were wormed; so their milk will be going to the pigs (it's not a waste, it's not a waste, it's not a waste ..........).<br />
Tomorrow we have C&D, Andrew and Stuart coming for dinner (7.00); 6.30 is tour of the garden (Andrew), so today we've been doing lots of weeding!<br />
The chickens (meat birds) are really suffering in the heat, unfortunately their time is up or they will just die (one already has). So today we moved the second chest freezer into the living room.<br />
I thought my water kefir grains had had it but today my water kefir is fizzing all over the place (must be the heat and I've been trying to rescue it).<br />
Hooray both goats came in for milking this evening; neither of them actually needed milking, but I gave them a bit of food and cleaned & Vaselined their teats (to stop them cracking) - they like routine.<br />
<br />
26th May<br />
We both had a horrible night. It was very hot, we couldn't use the fan because the inverter kept bleeping! As soon as it gets hot the solar stops being efficient (both the panels and the batteries don't function well in the heat!) - we had exactly this problem last summer, this year it's happening much earlier.<br />
I can hardly move; my back is very painful - I think it's from helping Brett move the chest freezer from the workshop to the living room (it was heavy and awkward).<br />
Of course the goats milked well this morning - I took off as little as necessary (which was still 1.5L - typical).<br />
I spent the whole day preparing food .........<br />
Starter: Fried Halloumi on a bed of watermelon triangles tossed with rocket, mint and lemon balm (looked very pretty).<br />
Main: Vegetarian pizza (tomato sauce, lamb's quarters, mushroom, onions and mozzarella), meat version (similar with added bacon and chorizo), coleslaw and a peeled broad bean salad.<br />
Pudding: Trifle made with aguadente cherries.<br />
We spent the whole evening (until gone 1.00) out on the decking; it was lovely, apart from the biting insects.<br />
<br />
27th May<br />
Dull and grey ........<br />
Plucking and gutting chickens with a hangover is not to be recommended!!!!!<br />
My back is still giving me gyp .........<br />
Bottled the Elderflower champagne.<br />
<br />
28th May<br />
The solar can't cope with both chest freezers being on, so we had to condense all our meat into the biggest freezer; this meant leaving out .... several joints of pork (to make into sausages), two bags of sundried tomatoes (to make into paste), chicken livers (to make into pate?).<br />
Another full on day of homesteading; processing the last of the chickens, making tomato paste (sundried tomatoes soaked for a couple of minutes in boiling water, olive oil, seasoning; blitz it all up in the liquidiser - delicious), Mozzarella (6L of milk from before the goats were wormed), I didn't have time to make the pate or lemon curd (tomorrow afternoon? In the morning the car is booked in for its MOT).<br />
The solar isn't happy, this evening it was on about 40%, which is close to shutting off (the freezer will be turned off overnight).<br />
<br />
29th May<br />
Some days I wish I hadn't bothered getting up - today was one of those days.<br />
To start off with it was difficult to get up, as my back is still iffy.<br />
When we bought the meat birds (as chicks) the guy threw in a free chick, she grew into a lovely young hen. She's been with the meat chicks since she got here, last night Brett transferred her into the laying hen's shed. This morning she was in the corner of the shed, with blood all over her bum - the hens had practically pecked her to death - Brett had to put her out of her misery. I feel so sad, she was absolutely pristine and healthy yesterday - I'm not liking my hens today!<br />
The trip into CB was successful, if stressful; the car passed it's inspection and we got one of the documents that Customs wants (to release our milking machine) from Finances.<br />
Then the day deteriorated again ......<br />
We started mincing the pork for the sausages and "BANG" the grinder exploded spraying meat everywhere! It was the same nylon part that broke back in January - we think it's made to break, to protect the engine and gears, if there's a jam in the mince (Brett had only just cleaned it out). I've sent for two replacement parts this time!<br />
And, last but not least, whilst trying to clean the blood and guts off the floor, the mop broke - so I had to do as good a job as my back would allow.<br />
It really was a shitty day!!!!! Tomorrow will be better, Claire arrives .........<br />
<br />
30th May<br />
Brett is starting to prepare the fields ready for hay making - it's going to be a long few weeks!<br />
Claire arrived at 4.00, so much to talk about.<br />
For dinner (pork Thai curry) we picked broad beans, French beans, peas and beetroot tops, we also picked radish to pickle tomorrow.<br />
<br />
31st May<br />
34C in the shade ......<br />
A completely homesteading day .......<br />
Claire and I made:- mozzarella, pickled radish, sausages (coriander, chilli & garlic, cranberry, garlic & thyme and sundried tomato paste and mozzarella) and lemon curd.<br />
Brett cut the hay in the big field with his new drum mower.<br />
We gave away our 3 year old hens (to Kimberley & Lawrence (5) and Pinnah & Eric (1)), as our pullets are laying now.<br />
Totally knackered.<br />
<br />
1st June<br />
The inverter was beeping in the night (the batteries were down to 40%), we had to turn off the fridge and the freezer - but I have a plan ..........<br />
Claire and I spent a few hours in the studio preparing stuff for firing this evening (thus saving the batteries!).<br />
Brett started mowing a second field.<br />
We planted out more melons, cucumbers and courgettes and sowed about 100 winter squash.Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-53091937856170873172017-05-10T15:15:00.000+01:002017-05-10T15:18:53.310+01:00And still more babies ....... .14th April<br />
I spent the day cooking and cleaning, as T&D were coming to dinner (Halloumi, sundried tomatoes and Greek styled olive tossed pasta, garlic bread, mixed salad, deconstructed Eton mess/fudge sundae i.e. I put everything on the table and people assembled their own concoction). Brett spent the day mowing and strimmering, to make the quinta look tidy.<br />
OMG we had a panic at this afternoon's milking; we'd brought the goats in, Jelisa was hooked up to the machine, about 30 seconds into her milking the pump stopped working!! It turned out that one of the wires had fallen of (and a second wire fell off as we were examining the pump), fortunately I was able to solder them back on (phew), otherwise we'd have had to resort to hand milking!!!!<br />
We had a lovely evening with T&D, who still have the calf (hopefully his owner will be located soon).<br />
<br />
15th April<br />
Stupid bloody bank!!!! Brett has ordered a drum mower for the tractor (so we can cut the grass long and then get someone in to bale our hay, we want to make lots this year) which means we have to travel daily, to the cash machine, to take out money so that we can pay for it (cash on delivery as we don't have a Portuguese account).<br />
OUR money is sitting there, in our account, but we're only allowed to withdraw 250€ per day! Makes me want to spit .....<br />
The gardening (weeding, planting, sowing and watering) and milking are taking up a big chunk of our day.<br />
Started watching a very strange film, Elle.<br />
<br />
16th April<br />
Xxx<br />
Happy Easter ........<br />
We didn't have time to do much this morning (after doing our chores, milking goats and going into Penamacor to get out money) as we were invited to a lunchtime picnic at Andrew's quinta (along with Chris & Di).<br />
It was a lovely afternoon; sitting under the shade of a tree eating, drinking and talking. And, of course, having the Grand Tour of Andrew's fabulous Horta (vegetable garden).<br />
Finished watching a very strange film, Elle!<br />
<br />
17th April<br />
Hot!<br />
I spent most of the night awake with earache .....<br />
So much milk ........... <br />
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So time to make cheese (going to make a hard one today). The worst bit of having all this milk and cheesmaking is sterilizing the equipment. Everything (milking machine, bottles, sieves, pots, strainer etc) has to be washed in hot soap water (cooled from boiling) then rinsed a couple of times in cooled boiled water and then left to dry naturally.<br />
Mesophillic starter added to 5 litres of milk and left to clabber (fabulous word!) for 24 hours.<br />
We had to do the 'money trip' to Penamacor. Then gardening, gardening, gardening (Brett is mowing our verges to make the place look tidy)........ He can work tirelessly in the heat - I can't!<br />
<br />
18th April<br />
Off to CB for Brett's dental appointment.<br />
We tried to arrange to visit Mark's friend Amelia (sent her an email). Even though we didn't hear back from her we went to, what we think is, her house (being built) and had a good look round - it's HUGE with fabulous views, it will be stunning when it's completed.<br />
Back home to the cheese making ...... added rennet to the clabbered milk, left it for 45 minutes to set (the curds should become the consistency of creme caramel and the whey separates out), it didn't work - the curds were tiny (no good for the next stage of the hard cheese recipe) so I just strained them through cheesecloth - Result: a very tasty cream cheese!!!! I've made a delicious Chevre!<br />
<br />
19th April<br />
Lightening and rain overnight. Today is cooler and rather windy.<br />
Brett made a goat milking table.<br />
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I played in my studio, preparing exciting experimental stuff for a firing.<br />
Our drum mower arrived today.<br />
OMG I forgot to feed the dogs this morning (again!), I didn't realise until I took down their dishes this afternoon and there were left-overs, from our meal last night, (their breakfast!).<br />
OMG (2) we used the new milking table; Jelisa jumped up quite happily (well front legs, back had to be maneuvered on), Lucy had to be totally lifted up (then she did her collapsing legs thing!). But both goats, once their heads were through the restraint, milked like a dream - it even seemed quicker than normal (well done Brett).<br />
<br />
20th April<br />
I remembered to feed the dogs!<br />
Lucy still had to be lifted onto the milking table; but the milking itself was a 'one man' job.<br />
We had an impromptu morning at Vince & Lola's (returning their plough), which was nice.<br />
I carried on with painting gates; we have to have the place looking nice when visitors come! We had a message from Claire today and she's going to visit in June (she's going to be our workaway!) - 'happy dancing' ......<br />
Bloody goats! All of them, two mothers and their three kids, were all inside the old water tank, underneath the solar panels. Brett had to put in a ramp to get them out; which the kids thought was great fun - up and down they went hopping and skipping, whilst the mothers just stood. They had to be coaxed out with food!<br />
This evening both goats hopped onto the table under their own steam, admittedly it was a slow process, with continual encouragement from us, but they're intelligent animals and they learn new tricks quickly (five weeks ago Lucy was the Satan goat from hell!).<br />
<br />
21st April<br />
Brett has thwarted the goat kids; he's put an electric fence around the solar panels/old water tank.<br />
Both nanny goats now get onto the milking table - clever animals.<br />
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Jelisa</div>
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Lucy</div>
I'm busily accumulating milk so I can have another try at cheddar; I need a minimum of 10 litres, which I should have by tomorrow - I'm getting about 2 litres a day.<br />
Tim, Zoe and their kids (Matt and Amy) came to lunch. I kept it simple (I didn't want to get into a competition with Tim, he cooked a huge banquet) frittata, boiled eggs, salads (pasta, coleslaw and tomato), bread, goat cheese and some of our ham, kefir or iced tea to drink - actually quite a nice spread.<br />
T&Z came with the intention of looking at kids and lambs to buy, but I think they wanted exactly what we haven't got for sale - female lambs (we're swapping the ones we have for piglets from Diane & Thomas).<br />
<br />
22nd April<br />
It's five days since I last made cheese and the fridge is heaving with milk (10 litres); so it's a smallholding day for me making cheese (hopefully cheddar-like), ricotta (waste not, want not!) and sausages (we mended the meat grinder AND IT WORKS!).<br />
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Today we learnt that ricotta means re-cooked (like panna cotta means cooked cream), therefore cotta means cooked in Italian.</div>
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Brett made a counterweight for the tractor (so it doesn't do wheelies when we have the various farm machinery attached to the back of it) and planted several more rows of cabbage (7 cents per plug) so that we can feed greenery to the animals.</div>
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Praise indeed ...... before stuffing the sausage skins we cooked a couple of small sausagemeat patties, just to check seasoning, texture etc. Brett's verdict: "there's nothing we can do to improve this/I would be proud to serve these to people/Mark Tipping would have loved these", so he's a happy bunny!</div>
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What a left down; we watched the finale of Broadchurch.</div>
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23rd April</div>
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St George's Day - I remember some Saint's days from my, brief, time as a Girl Guide, when I was ten or eleven, (I can also tie a reef knot, behind my back - why on earth was that a criteria for getting a knot's badge???).</div>
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The cheese was unwrapped and salted, it now needs to mature for a couple of weeks.</div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">You would think that having a sausage stuffing attachment, on my food mixer, would make the task quick and easy - wrong!!! Firstly the instructions were wrong 'replace round disc with sausage funnel', when they meant cutting blade (ground down the end of the funnel). And the sausage meat just didn't feed through .... I managed in the end!</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9yA5DvoaWlEIEW4_jUxLXI6QADQHe7REughSRujxn7mRFkU-xVq05CGSN2RuXoS7t9H_UwUqYaam_U1a5xYQoXR1aB7IlmTxKLEUqexL6XQMtGM-20oFop_zCbRaJvvvMrPkowFaxc2x/s1600/20170423_121047-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd9yA5DvoaWlEIEW4_jUxLXI6QADQHe7REughSRujxn7mRFkU-xVq05CGSN2RuXoS7t9H_UwUqYaam_U1a5xYQoXR1aB7IlmTxKLEUqexL6XQMtGM-20oFop_zCbRaJvvvMrPkowFaxc2x/s320/20170423_121047-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Kiln firing ........<br />
Painted another gate - three to go .....<br />
<br />
24th April<br />
I spent the morning in my studio, designing and leading up a panel with one of the pieces that came out of the Kiln this morning.<br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">Arsenic & Old Lace featuring Ghost Hare Triskelion</span></div>
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Sardines waiting to go into a panel</div>
This afternoon I painted two gates - one to go!<br />
<br />
25th April<br />
Freedom Day = Public Holiday .......<br />
Poo, now I have earache in my other ear (Brett thinks the infection traveled from ear to ear via my brain!).<br />
The garden is starting to look good except .... we had rain the other night so the weeds have taken off with a vengeance!<br />
So Brett has had this brilliant idea; the solar shed, that he's building onto the front of the house, can be increased slightly, a small part will become the solar and boiler room and the rest will become a bathroom and the best bit ....... the current bathroom will become our dressing room (I'll have somewhere to put my clothes!). Once again we're pondering ...... should we have a bath????<br />
<br />
26th April<br />
Brett dug and filled the footings for the bathroom (lots of smiley faces!).<br />
I had made Halloumi and Ricotta (it takes a good four hours). <br />
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And then we both made sausagemeat (we've got 10+lbs of meat minced) then tomorrow we have the fun job (not) of stuffing the skins.<br />
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27th April</div>
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A group (10-12) of us got together (well Jo and Karina organised us) to buy a load of Paulonia Tomentosa (Princess/Empress tree); by buying in bulk (400+) we got about 16% discount. They were delivered today. Ann & Martin (and a couple of friends who are staying with them) came back to our quinta afterwards so Ann could look at my glass - I sold the Greenman panel, two seahorse mobiles and have a commission for three more mobiles (the money is all going into a pot so I can buy more supplies).</div>
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">Stuffed a whole load more sausages - I even learnt how to tie them like a butcher (from youtube!).</span></div>
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Sharon was dripping this evening and being very vocal - I think she's in labor, Brett thinks she's on heat .......<br />
<br />
28th April<br />
Another full on Smallholding day ......<br />
Checking the goats Sharon definitely appears (to me) to be giving birth (she's got a water sack protruding), Brett's not convinced (he says she's not big enough).<br />
This morning we went to help Thomas & Diane dispatch their boar (we're going to share their meat, then they'll help us do our boar and have half our meat).<br />
When we came home we checked on Sharon, she was lying down with the rest of her flock looking relaxed and well, no sign of a kid.<br />
The afternoon was butchering and freezing the meat.<br />
Then back to feed the flock and check on Sharon. She came straight in for food with obvious signs that she had indeed given birth - but no sign of a kid! A search of their field revealed a tiny, alien looking, kid fetus; she'd obviously miscarried - we're just pleased she's ok, she's too old to be a mother again.<br />
This evening I managed to milk the goats on my own, thanks to Brett's wonderful milking table and the way the goats have adapted to it - both of them voluntarily come onto the decking, jump onto the table and put their head through the restraining bars to eat - once their head is through the bar is locked into place, which stops them from escaping (they don't mind, they're too busy eating!). Tomorrow I will need to make cheese again as the fridge is full of milk (thank goodness we haven't got a cow - though I would like fresh cream!).<br />
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29th April<br />
A well deserved day off, unfortunately it's raining!<br />
Oh dear I can't be bothered to make cheese today; however, it's been a week since I made the 'Cheddar' so we thought we'd try it (I have little patience/need instant gratification!), it was good, not Cheddar as we know it, Brett reckons more like a Wensleydale. Anyway I will wait until I have 10 litres of milk and make another Cheddar (we can easily use a 2lb wheel in a week, or two).<br />
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The weather had improved by this afternoon; but by then we'd started watching a film, '28 days later...' - not very good, full of cliches!<br />
I can milk the goats on my own; Jelisa eagerly comes in first while Lucy paces about outside bleating (I'm sure she's saying "get a move on" in goat language). Jelisa is being very affectionate at the moment rubbing her head on me and enjoying a scratch (Brett thinks she's on heat!).<br />
<br />
30th April<br />
Wet, cold and windy ........<br />
Didn't do much.<br />
<br />
1st May<br />
Cheese making is coming around too often! It takes a good part of a day. I made another wheel of 'Cheddar'.<br />
Our milking machine hasn't arrived, it's been a month, delivery was quoted as (up to) 30th April; I've sent a message to the seller and if I have no joy I'll ask for a refund - Ebay guarantees money back. Annoying though, as we would rather have the machine!<br />
Great, we had a reply from Vlad (in the Ukraine) our milking machine has been in Customs since the 11th April - but no one thought to tell us (the tracking number they supplied didn't work). He's given us a telephone number, so we can ring them ..... great, our favorite task, trying to talk/understand Portuguese over the phone!!!!<br />
I advertised our goat kids for sale on Facebook this afternoon ...... MY ADVERT (I tried to make it catchy):<br />
<br />
FOR SALE: Goat Kids<br />
Do you have large, unmanageable, areas of scrubby grassland?<br />
Do you spend hours strimmering?<br />
Would you like, FRESH, milk?<br />
Would you like to make your own cheese?<br />
~<br />
If you answer "yes" to one or more of the questions above YOU NEED GOATS!!!<br />
~<br />
2 x female kids, born January 2017<br />
Very friendly<br />
Both their mothers are good milkers<br />
50€ each<br />
~<br />
3 x male (castrated) kids, born March 2017 (ready to go beginning of June)<br />
Very friendly and playful - will make good pets<br />
40€ each<br />
...<br />
I had sold the two females by this evening!<br />
<br />
2nd May<br />
Andrew agreed to make 'the phone call' for us (his Portuguese is excellent); he dialed the number, laughed and put the phone down ...... he had been answered by a recorded voice giving options - option (1) "if you would like to speak in English please press 1"!!!!!<br />
So I made the call; turns out it was to CTT (Portuguese Post Office) not Customs. Customs has our package, they might want documentation from us (fiscal number, proof of address, proof of purchase), they haven't asked for anything yet (we might get a letter), we have to phone back in a week to see if there's any news, they can hold on to our package for a maximum of 90 days (and there's nothing we can do to speed them up!) - bloody brilliant!<br />
<br />
3rd May<br />
A day of cooking and cleaning as we have Vince & Lola coming to dinner. Starter: mixed homemade goat cheeses (Cheddar style, soft Chevre, moulded Chevre and Ricotta) and homecured air dried ham. Main: roast pork leg (Thomas & Diane's), roast sweet potatoes (nearly the last of them) and I picked our first French beans and some peas. Pudding: tiramisu (courtesy of Lola!).<br />
We had a fablous evening and drank loads of Jerapiga!<br />
<br />
4th May<br />
Chaos at the milking station.<br />
We had to bring Hazel and Georgia, with their two kids (Tinkerbell and Bauble), down to the house this morning; as the kids were being collected this afternoon.<br />
There was lots of head butting, rearing, pushing and shoving between the new group and Jelisa, Lucy and the male kids.<br />
Then, of course, they all wanted to come onto the decking for the milking session, as food is involved! Poor old Lucy was so distressed she didn't eat whilst she was being milked.<br />
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It is her kid stealing her food!</div>
The fridge is full of milk again!!! We now have to decide whether to milk Hazel and Georgia too (do I want to be making cheese daily?).<br />
The female kids went this evening. Georgia and Hazel didn't seem that bothered! The kids were obviously rather distressed, but they will be completely spoil and made into pampered pets.<br />
<br />
5th May<br />
We had a long shopping list (mainly for the new bathroom and the garden), so had to go into CB today. It wasn't a fantastic success, we had to do lots of compromising.<br />
For the bathroom we needed: a shower tray, glass bricks (to let light into the shower), a window and we wanted to look at tiles (for the floor, walls and shower). So we ended up with ........ a much bigger tray than we went for - 140cms long, a smaller window, glass bricks with bubbles rather than colored glass (2.99 v 5.49!) and nothing in the way of tiles (they were all big and not teribbly nice).<br />
For the garden we wanted maize to plant up the vegetable field and irrigation to water said field. In Agriloja 2.5 kilos of corn was 20€ but in the shop we bought from 5 kilos was just 2€!!! 1/20 of the price. And the irrigation???? Well what we went in to buy would have cost us over 600€, so we're going to see if we can bodge it (600€ would buy an awful lot of corn!).<br />
Our three nanny goats who are not being milked are very full (Georgia and Hazel because their kids have gone and Sharon because of her miscarriage), but we just can't cope with more milking with our little machine - it would end up breaking, fingers crossed Customs releases our new machine soon.<br />
<br />
6th May<br />
A day of cheese (Halloumi and Ricotta) and ice cream (experimented by including the Ricotta, so a bit like a cheesecake ice cream?) making ..... and there's still litres of milk in the fridge! We have a glut ........<br />
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New method of heating the milk slowly (1 degree per 5 minutes)</div>
Brett planted our Princess trees.<br />
<br />
7th May<br />
I spent the day in the studio (I need to complete Rebecca & Paul's wedding present before they arrive in 10 days time!!!!).<br />
We had a text from C&D inviting us to the bar at 4.00 (to celebrate the start of summer!); we decided to be sociable, but only go for an hour or two (as we had all our evening tasks to do).<br />
On our way out of the quinta we noted one of the ewes had given birth to twins!!!!! We checked the lambs were feeding and looking healthy, then went to the bar ..... FOUR hours later (!!!!!) we arrived back home, the goats and ducks were queuing at the decking and the geese had put themselves to bed! But we did have a good time; Greg & Sarah, Stuart and Baptiste were there too.<br />
<br />
8th May<br />
It's gone hot again .......<br />
We used our seeder to sow chickpeas, black eyed beans, mangle wurzels and maize in our vegetable garden field - fingers crossed they germinate well, and not too many weeds.<br />
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This evening we had to take the dogs to the vet, for their annual vaccinations - that was fun!!!!<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-17319490909732462202017-04-20T22:33:00.000+01:002017-04-20T22:33:15.627+01:00BLOODY MILK ......,,28th March<br />
I'm made a clock for my studio (I'm too tight to buy one!).<br />
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This afternoon we went round to Judith's for afternoon tea; she has a lovely big quinta with mowed lawns and flower beds.<br />
<br />
29th March<br />
Brett and I had a gardening day. I sowed lots of seeds and excavated channels, for watering, in the polytunnel.<br />
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Brett cut grass (tractor) and rotavated (rotavator, until it broke (again), then tractor).<br />
<br />
30th March<br />
I hate housework!!! I tidied, swept, dusted and washed the floor this morning - by this afternoon the floor needed doing again (I didn't!!!).<br />
Pam, Nicky (her house buyer) and Taliss (Nicky's daughter) came round this afternoon - they exchange contracts tomorrow.<br />
Brett finished the supports for the vines, <br />
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then plough the vegetable garden field <br />
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- looks good.<br />
This evening we went for our 'last supper' with P&M at O Fontanha (skewer restaurant) - we might never see them again!<br />
<br />
31st March<br />
Well we did see them again (this afternoon) when we went to give them an agate and leaded glass roundel that I spent today assembling, as a house warming gift.<br />
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I forgot to take a photo after it had been completed!</div>
Brett did more ploughing and grass cutting in the vegetable garden; tomorrow we're going into CB to buy fruit trees and new vines (eating grapes, preferably seedless so I can make sultanas).<br />
<br />
1st April<br />
We bought three peach trees, two plum trees (well one's a greengage) and two seedless vines (one black, one white); we're very excited.<br />
We also bought paint for the remaining gates - so that's me sorted for next week!<br />
I heard the first bee eater today (definitely summer!).<br />
OMG we've just ordered a proper milking machine; we've gambled and gone for the cheaper Ukrainian one (£375 v £1100), fingers crossed it's not 'too good to be true'.<br />
<br />
2nd April<br />
We're well into this gardening lark; Brett rotavated the unplanted side of the polytunnel, while I carried on weeding the herb bed - I uncovered/discovered horseradish, comfrey and wild rosemary (all of which I thought I'd lost). And I dug up and (I'm very proud of myself) disposed of (ok I stuck it in heaps under trees, in the hope some of it might grow!) FIVE, very full, wheelbarrows of mint roots. Now I need to get herbs and edible flowers, to fill all the space I've created.<br />
<br />
3rd April<br />
This morning we spent lots of money (several hundred euros) on posts etc for supports in the vegetable garden (mainly for espaliering and fanning fruit trees and bushes/canes) - let's hope we can keep up with the weeding!<br />
When Nicky & Rich came round they gave us a whole load of vegetable seeds, many in envelopes with hand written names; one merely said 'mole deterrent plant', so I sowed some of the seeds today. Then I researched, on the internet, to see what it might be, as the seeds are very distinctive; turns out it's Castor Oil plant - the most deadly plant to man!!!!! It's the plant that Ricin comes from! So they're going in the bin then ......<br />
<br />
4th April<br />
Happy Birthday Alex xxx<br />
Our milking machine was dispatched today.<br />
We went to lunch at Tim & Zoe's quinta (we've never been before). It's HUGE, 10 hectares, fabulous views (including Monsanto), very nice. Tim had cooked a veritable feast. We had a lovely time.<br />
The muscovy ducklings have started hatching ......<br />
We have the weirdest radishes growing; they are over (soft and hollow) but when I pulled them up for the pigs there were new radish (crisp, hot and juicy) growing below the original radish.<br />
<br />
5th April<br />
The mother ducks (yes there's two sitting on the same nest) are sitting tight, so far I've managed to count five ducklings.<br />
A&K had a lunchtime BBQ birthday party for Alex; it was great fun. Unfortunately we were the first to leave as we had goats to milk. And thank goodness we came back when we did - Lucy was so full she was literally squirting milk out (she must have been pressing on something in her lying position), very weird.<br />
Poor old Diane & Thomas are struggling with their new cow, she not used to being milked and she's rather feisty ........<br />
One of our young chicks was in their water bucket this evening. We have no idea how long it had been there, it looked dead (it was soaked through and freezing cold) ....... but five hours later with lots of TLC, a box in front of the heater, a hot water bottle to sit on etc it seems to be recovering.<br />
We put her back in the shed at midnight (it was the best way to keep her warm).<br />
<br />
6th April<br />
And this morning we couldn't tell which was the drowned chick!!!! They all rushed out saying they were starving. Feeling good ........<br />
Mrs Muscovy came out with eight ducklings, later Mrs Muscovy 2 (he has two wives) came out with three more very young ducklings (who shouldn't have left the nest yet) so we shut her (Mrs 2) in the shed with them (there could still be eggs hatching)<br />
Brett prepared the ground ready for vegetable plugs and seeds. I cooked as Wendy & Kevin are coming to lunch tomorrow.<br />
This afternoon Brett called me over to Lucy, so I could see her leaking milk (I hadn't seen it for myself); she had a continuous fountain of milk flowing from her udder (she doesn't 'let down' that well when she's being milked!). She was just lying on the ground with milk pouring from her.<br />
<br />
7th April<br />
Twelve ducklings came out of the shed this morning!<br />
Wendy & Kevin came to lunch today (chilled pumpkin soup. Focaccia, sundries tomato jam and rocket tart, our dried ham (ours) <br />
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with melon, coleslaw and mixed salad).<br />
This evening we planted four trays of potatoes (ours from last year). This year we're planting everything close together hopefully this will reduce the number of weeds.<br />
<br />
8th April<br />
Off to CB to look at farm machinery (sythe mower and hay turner) and to buy furniture for the lower deck (the table and chairs on it atm came with us from Wales and are on their last legs).<br />
There were only eleven ducklings when we got home. We searched and searched but couldn't find the twelfth.<br />
This afternoon I planted our fruit trees, while Brett finished the post and wires. When we got back to the house there were only ten ducklings!<br />
This evening we castrated our three male kids; a really horrible job, we feel bad, but it means they'll have longer lives.<br />
<br />
9th April<br />
Our goat kids aren't happy .........<br />
We feel mean!<br />
They're not feeding much so their mothers are full. We milked Jelisa (both sides) this morning 3/4 litre and again this afternoon 1.5 litres - we're literally taking off enough to make them comfortable (the machine isn't capable of anything more). We found blood in the milk from Lucy (panicked as it could indicate mastitis) we were actually relieved when we discovered she had a cracked teat (treating with vaseline), and feeding her milk to pigs and dogs!<br />
We had afternoon tea at Claire & Phil's, and came back with .... Lemons!<br />
This evening Brett was standing on the decking and saw a wild boar on the abandoned quinta next door (we're bordered by at least fifteen quinta and quite a few are abandoned) - of course, by the time I got out there, it had disappeared into the undergrowth.<br />
<br />
10th April<br />
1 litre from Jelisa (both sides) and 1/2 from Lucy (one side) at 9.00 a.m. Hope our new milking machine arrives soon.<br />
We went to Fundao market today for vegetable plugs: brocolli, cabbage, piri piri, capsicum, onions, cauliflower (white and Romanesque), tomatoes and Brussels sprouts......<br />
A full litre from Lucy today (just milking one side), unfortunately she's still bleeding so we can't use the milk (lucky dogs and pigs!). And another 3/4 litre from Jelisa (one side).<br />
I made Halloumi and Ricotta; tomorrow I might make ice cream.<br />
We didn't get all our plugs in, mainly because we had to wait until it was a bit cooler and then we have so much to do (animals, watering etc); but those we did get in are looking good.<br />
<br />
11th April<br />
It was over 30C on the decking today ......<br />
We had lots planned and it all went to pot, as Brett's tooth pain hit crisis point, and we had to take a trip to CB for him to a<br />
have root canal work (took out the nerve).<br />
We managed to get all the plugs planted today; the tomatoes are looking rather limp/dead!<br />
Oh dear Z&T found an abandoned calf (which they brought home!), just days old and hungry. Fortunately D&T's cow took to it and allowed it to feed. Now they've got to find the owner.<br />
<br />
12th April<br />
30+C in the shade ..........<br />
Hoorah, we didn't need to milk either goat this morning; it won't be such a chore once we have our new machine (hopefully any day now).<br />
We have Diane & Thomas coming to dinner Friday; so today I'm busily making goat's milk and goose egg ice cream, I'm stirring away when it suddenly dawns on me ...... Diane is allergic to goose eggs (well duck eggs actually, but she doesn't eat goose eggs, as a precaution) and, as the boys are feeding again, I'm now out of goat milk - bugger!<br />
Lots of vegetable gardening today.<br />
This evening Jelisa gave us an easy 1.5 litres and Lucy 1/2 litre (we're still feeding hers to the dogs and pigs)......<br />
<br />
13th April<br />
30+C ........<br />
One of the duckling was smothered overnight; then there were nine!<br />
Lucy's milk is blood free (it needs to settle overnight and the blood precipitates out, very easy to see); Hoorah from us, boo from pigs and dogs.<br />
It's so hot and I have no summer clothes so I spent the day adjusting dresses I made last year; removing the underskirts and sleeves - much more comfortable/wearable now, if a trifle short!<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-60542714587287723392017-03-28T11:14:00.000+01:002017-03-31T23:04:36.614+01:00AND NOW LAMBS .......6th March<br />
I'm so excited (for Thomas & Diane, of course)...... they have bought a cow! Once they get it (they reckon two weeks) it will be in full milk, I'm sure they'll be able to spare some cream for us occasionally (they are very generous).<br />
The handmilker was a godsend; Jelisa's udder was so hard, but eventually we had a milk flow and she softened nicely (hopefully now the kids can get a purchase) and we have goat milk in the fridge.<br />
We had to take the new kid and mother from the vegetable garden, to the goat's maternity shed, what a struggle. The mother (now named Satan!) has never been on a lead before, in fact she was always quite standoffish, she fought and screamed like a banshee (if you've never heard a goat scream you won't realise how penetrating/distressing this noise is) the whole way - and, for something so small she's very strong, my arms were nearly pulled from their sockets (I'm not exaggerating!).<br />
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Satan & her kid!</div>
I made chocolate fridge cake, as Claire and Judith are coming to afternoon tea tomorrow.<br />
<br />
7th March<br />
Thank goodness we had the milker; this morning Satan needed relieving on one side - sometimes the udder gets so full that the kid is unable to feed from it. She stood well (with her head in a bucket of food) while we tried to get the teat cup on her - she's so small the milker was too big to go under her, in the end we had to prop her on top of it!<br />
Satan has been renamed - Lucifer!!! Lucy for short. Today she lost her kid we searched high and low (they are very good at hiding) after a couple of hours she was found underneath a pile of olive prunings!.<br />
I had a lovely afternoon with Claire and Judith; lots of chatting and tea drinking was had. AND Claire brought me two large bagfuls of lemons, some are the size of grapefruits.<br />
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8th March<br />
Today is warm .....<br />
I was going to do the washing but thought 'why waste all that generator electricity?'. So instead I spent the day preparing glass for a kiln firing - I'll do the washing tomorrow and fire my kiln at the same time.<br />
Brett is on the final phase of his fencing; splitting the big field into two. We have named all our fields/paddocks; we have ..... Top field (highest point of our land), Lavender paddock (where about an acre of lavender bushes grow), Goose field (where the geese live atm), Olive grove (it has our oldest olive trees in it) and one we can't think of a name for (it's kind of featureless). We also have Poultry island (where the chickens live) but that's not really a field and bottom field (in front of the house).<br />
<br />
9th March<br />
27C in the shade (and we're not used to it!). Today I saw the first swallows of the summer .......<br />
It's funny the things that make one happy; today I found wire wool in the Drogeria - I'm going to use it as inclusions in my glass.<br />
The kiln is on (generator) and ..... I'm doing the washing by solar (as the kiln is running continuously, for the next hour or so, and the solar is fully charged).<br />
Brett finished the fencing.<br />
<br />
10th March<br />
Another hot day ...<br />
Haha, I was up at 6.30 as I couldn't wait to open the kiln! And I'm very happy with the results - I spent all night worrying that the inclusions might have caused massive air bubbles, but it was fine.<br />
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Quite a complicated procedure, using a paper doily as a stencil</div>
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I think I used too much wire wool!</div>
Pam came round to do some felting, I prepared more glass for fusing - fab day.<br />
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11th March<br />
Not so warm today, the sun was hiding .......<br />
Pam and I went to the car boot sale in Penamacor; I didn't buy anything, but I spoke to lots of people. Carly gave us a tour of her new shop - juice bar and gift shop, she's made it really nice, I hope she makes a go of it. She might be interested in having some of my glass to sell.<br />
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12th March<br />
A cooler day and very windy .....<br />
I did another kiln firing today; I've made a few small pieces (suncatchers etc) that might sell quite well in Carly's shop.<br />
This evening we're out at Chris & Di's with P&M (who leave at the end of the month).<br />
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13th March<br />
Still cool and windy (I'm back to wearing a heavy jumper).<br />
Of course we had a late night last night! It was fun, we had a good old gossip and set the world to rights.<br />
Yesterday's kiln firing didn't all go to plan, the small pieces didn't fully slump so they'll need to be refired, my dish however I'm very pleased with: <br />
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I think I'll call it my Arsenic & Old Lace range (I want to do some more A&OL panels, Nicky & Rich gave me some wonderfully distressed mirrors that will be perfect to include.<br />
I spent another day in my studio preparing glass for firing - I LOVE my studio!!!<br />
Brett started making field gates for our newly fenced paddocks - then I'll have to paint them.<br />
We lit the fire again this evening .....<br />
<br />
14th March<br />
The wind has dropped.<br />
Brett carried on with his gates. I did a kiln firing and prepared more glass for firing.<br />
This evening I spotted a snake, a white snake, probably an albino ladder snake. <br />
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I put a photo of it on Facebook, to see if anyone could identify it - it has caused such excitement, apparently it's exceedingly rare, we've been asked to try to catch it now!<br />
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15th March<br />
Another dish (arsenic & old lace range) that I'm really happy with, but the small pieces still need hotter/longer.<br />
We caught the snake; Mark came and took photos and another Mark took it away to study it (identify it), but he's bringing it back.<br />
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16th March<br />
I mixed paint for the gates (adding blue pigment to the pale blue we used in the kitchen), it's a duck egg blue color - we're trying to get the feel of a farm we both liked, in Wales, that had lots of pale blue painted gates. I painted two gates - they take forever! Making gates takes a while too, Brett had to make one today for a slope, the uprights are upright but the rails are 'on the piss', should look 'right' in situ.<br />
Mark brought our snake back and confirmed that it is an albino ladder snake; it's back living in the chicken run.<br />
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17th March<br />
RIP Uncle Bill.<br />
Happy St Patrick's Day ......<br />
Too achy to continue gate painting; so I rearranged the studio (probably a far more physical task!), prepared some glass for sandblasting and then had a frustrating sandblasting session - I couldn't get the pressure to turn down, so it was blasting off all my masking. In the end Brett depressurized the tank and swopped to the other outlet nozzle on the compressor, then it worked fine (but not before spoiling a load of glass) - annoyed!<br />
Ooops, I fed the dogs this evening and there were scraps in their bowls from last evening - I forgot to feed them this morning!!!! They hadn't said anything .......<br />
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18th March<br />
I'm going through a really achy phase atm, especially at night when all my joints feel tender; so today I made Turmeric and Cinnamon Capsules (they're supposed to be anti-inflammatory):<br />
1/3 cup turmeric<br />
1 tbspn cinnamon<br />
2 tbspns honey<br />
1 tbspn coconut oil<br />
Good twist of black pepper<br />
Whizzed up in my mini processor (which I bought as a spice mill, but it doesn't work for that very well!), then form into little balls (I made about 40). I tried wearing plastic gloves for the last bit but they were too cumbersome - is now I have bright yellow palms!!! I'm going to take one three times a day, fingers crossed (well perhaps not, too painful!).<br />
I carried on painting gates (martyr that I am), whilst Brett hung gates - his wonky one looks good.<br />
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Gate to vegetable garden (sheep are in veg garden!)</div>
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Wonky gate, on a slope</div>
Oh dear, I went up to look at the newly hung gates (well two are hung, the wonky one isn't as we can't find any hinges that will work on it); the dogs saw me and came running, the sheep were spooked by the running dogs, one sheep tried to jump the fence, another tried to go through it -they've ruined the fence and I've been made to feel it's my fault! Fortunately the sheep seem ok.<br />
I took 1/2 litre of milk off Jelisa, just to take the pressure off one side, which bodes well for when we're milking her properly (lots of cheese and ice cream). Lucy, for a change, didn't need milking. We're still waiting for delivery of our new pump, we, mentally, thank Diane & Thomas daily for the loan of their hand milker.<br />
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19th March<br />
Hot ......<br />
We heard the first cuckoo this morning ......<br />
I'm so bored with painting gates!!!! Only another five to go .........<br />
This afternoon I spent a sweaty two hours in the polytunnel, weeding - the weeds grow so fast compared to my vegetables!!!<br />
The sow is 'bagging up' and building a nest - and we just thought she was fat!<br />
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20th March<br />
Spring has Sprung ......<br />
One of last year's lambs gave birth overnight (of course we didn't realise she was pregnant).<br />
A trip in to CB to buy more paint for the gates - and they didn't have any in store.<br />
This afternoon we started pruning our grapes - we want the place to look tidy and cared for.<br />
We tried to house the new lamb this evening, the mother was having none of it, so we had to leave them out - hope the lamb's ok (we couldn't even check it was feeding).<br />
The sow started giving birth this evening; she had had one, Tamworth coloured one, by midnight.<br />
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21st March<br />
By 2.00 she'd given birth to a black one and that was it ...... two!!!!!<br />
And the black one is acting just like 'Runt'; he spent the morning in the house on a hot water bottle, I tried feeding him with goat's milk, but he wasn't interested. He's back out with his mum, but we think she laid on him! We're letting nature take it's course this time; but it's very hard and distressing - it was equally/more distressing last year when Runt suffered (for longer because we took him in) and ended up dying anyway at three weeks.<br />
We pruned more vines today and are thinking of buying more plants, I would like some seedless grapes so I can make sultanas.<br />
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22nd March<br />
Well we weren't expecting that ..... both piglets were dead this morning, the sow had crushed them in the night!<br />
We had a trip to Vince & Lola's today, to borrow their plough attachment for the tractor.<br />
When we got home Mark and his friend Amelia were outside our gate. We got Mark fixing the pump for our electric milking machine (an 'O' ring was missing, so no vacuum was being created) and we got Amelia to ring up a Portuguese company that sells proper milking machines - so a very worthwhile visit for us ..... we gave them lunch!<br />
We got 2 - 3 times the amount of milk from the goats than we have been getting, from using the hand pump (thank you Mark); we're still looking into the proper machine (so far we just have photos and the sellers assurance that this is a far superior machine to any of the cheaper machine on sale in Portugal!).<br />
This evening the wonders of modern technology had me 'speaking' live to my friend Karina, who's in Russia atm - amazing. She and Alex have also bought a cow ......<br />
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23rd March<br />
Cold and showery .......<br />
Brett has made a jolly good job of the vines in the vegetable garden; he's pruned them, put in new posts and wires so that when they grow they can be trained, however ........ while he was doing this he left the shed open and Lily had a whale of a time rodent hunting - she destroyed four unopened bags of plaster, a couple of bags of tile adhesive, scattered the contents of several boxes of car boot paraphernalia and generally made a bloody great mess!!!!<br />
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Look at this mess ......</div>
I spent the day in my cold studio.<br />
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24th March<br />
There was ice on the animal's water this morning.<br />
Smallholding never seems to go to plan, today it was Thomas & Diane's turn; I've made up some new smallholding proverbs .........<br />
~ don't count your piglets before they're weaned.<br />
~ don't count your bacon before it's killed.<br />
You have to be in the know to understand them!<br />
I did a firing this afternoon, looking forward to the morning .......<br />
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25th March<br />
Frigid this morning .....<br />
I'm very pleased with my new range of dishes 'Sardines'.<br />
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The 'sucked in' edge is caused by a hot spot in my kiln (overfired).</div>
Stove lit early, I made lemon curd.<br />
Then we had heavy hail.<br />
Followed by thunder & lightening.<br />
More hail.<br />
And then a thunderstorm right overhead .......<br />
3/4 litre of milk off one side of Jelisa, just to soften her up - I can't drink it fast enough (I'll have to make freakshakes).<br />
This evening is P&M's leaving do at Bar do Clube - it's going to be hard to leave our warm cosy house to go there!<br />
We actually had a good evening at bar do clube!<br />
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26th March<br />
Happy Mothering Sunday!<br />
Beastly weather today, cold and wet ......<br />
I had a lovely long phone call from William this morning.<br />
We had a very lazy Sunday (fire lit early and watched films).<br />
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27th March<br />
Bloody hell, one of our original ewes (lambed Sept/Oct) was giving birth to twins when we went to check on the flock this morning!!!! We're overrun with offspring .........<br />
<a name='more'></a>Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-10766860741047682732017-03-06T17:14:00.002+00:002017-03-06T18:56:34.632+00:00OVER RUN WITH KIDS .........12th February<br />
It would have been my father's birthday today .....<br />
An awful day; last night the goats were put in the shed (the sheep don't seem to mind the rain, I think the lanolin makes them waterproof) and they stayed there for much of today.<br />
The generator was needed this morning so I got another firing done; I'm getting quite a lot of work that needs leading up (not my favorite task!).<br />
We timed putting away the animals badly, we got hit by a deluge and had to take shelter in the barn for a good quarter of an hour; water was pouring off the land around us, by the time we got inside the house we were soaked through. A good evening to snuggle up close to the range.<br />
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13th February<br />
I still love unloading my kiln in the mornings, it so exciting; the painted pieces go in with dull grey paint and come out with black shiny paint! I now have another three panels ready to lead up.<br />
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Boxing Hares</div>
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Running Hare</div>
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Winter Tree</div>
Brett wants to finish fencing the quinta, whilst the ground is wet; that should keep him occupied for a while - but not today as it's raining on and off all day.<br />
I leaded up two panels, unfortunately the battery in the studio was low so I didn't complete the soldering (I'll finish it next time the generator is on).<br />
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Greenman</div>
Sweet potatoes were put into water to chit; we want to grow enough to feed to the animals this year.<br />
<br />
14th February<br />
Happy Valentine to me .........<br />
I now have three panels leaded, soldered and ready to cement (my all time most unfavourite part of the process!). And today's firing means I should have all the glass to complete another two panels.<br />
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Hare Triskelion Roundel </div>
I tried using the tile cutter to cut rings of glass from wine bottles; it didn't work, the glass just shattered any old how. I was going to slump them in the kiln to make glass doughnuts, but I can't see that happening now.<br />
<br />
15th February<br />
I leaded up three more panels, so feeling pleased with myself.<br />
Unfortunately I think there's something wrong with the inverter I use in the studio, not the battery (as Brett put a fully charged battery on for me); the inverter alarm keeps going off and then the power switches off - which means I didn't manage to solder the panels.<br />
Brett spent the day clearing the land where he's going to fence next(he's reclaimed about 10' of ground around the perimeter).<br />
<br />
16th February<br />
And the sun is out!!! Better weather is forecast for the next few days.<br />
Over the next few days we have to spend about 1000€ on fence post, wire etc. So I asked the bank (n&p) to increase our daily withdrawal limit from £250 to £500 - they said "no", for security reasons the card withdrawal is set at 250€, bloody ridiculous it's our money! So now every time we pass a bank machine we have to withdraw cash.<br />
Ha that was worrying ........ we went to buy our first 100 fence posts, passing through San Miguel De Acha, where there's a bank machine. I put in my card, card number, amount I wanted to withdraw and ....... the machine froze! I called Brett, we punched all the buttons, nothing happened (we're in the middle of a village that just happens to have a bank machine next to public toilets - no bank or shop attached or anyone to talk to) after several (panicky) minutes it came back to life!!!!! We got our money and card (phew).<br />
As the sun was out I sowed seeds in the polytunnel (it was bloody hot); tomatoes, peppers and chilies, aubergine and cucumber (only five trays but it took me a couple of hours).<br />
I soldered the glass panels; I now have six waiting to be cemented. I'm contemplating trying to sell stuff on Etsy (Brett's idea), so now I've got to think of a catchy name for my 'company'.<br />
<br />
17th February<br />
We bought gate posts today (already 600€ spent), but didn't use the cash machine in San Miguel De Acha as it frightened us yesterday! Fortunately we needed to go into Penamacor for animal food (unfortunately completely the opposite direction), so used the one in mini-p (where there were people we could talk to if necessary).<br />
I spent a horrible, but productive, afternoon, in the studio, cementing six panels; it's such a messy job and I always have to throw away at least one scrubbing brush (which makes me feel wasteful) as there's no way of cleaning it.<br />
I spent a frustrating evening creating a Facebook page for my glass, it's called 'Quinta Glass & Crafts'. I don't understand half the options/instructions, I can't open my messages and when I try to 'view page as a visitor' I get a blank page!!! Bloody technology .......<br />
<br />
18th February<br />
Pam came round to sort out my Facebook page (she downloaded an app). She said I also needed an instagram account to share my photos easily (and add hashtags??????), so I signed up using my Facebook account. However when I signed in it said ..... my password was wrong, then it 'deactivated my account for violating Instagram terms' - I hadn't got as far as opening the account. In reply to my email for help they wanted me to send a photo of me holding a piece of paper with, handwritten on it, my name and a code - how would Instagram recognise me in a photo?????<br />
<br />
<br />
19th February<br />
The generator is on to do the washing so I'm experimenting with my kiln; I've put on my slumping/fusing programme to time how long it actually takes.<br />
01.00 R 500 (1 hour: raise temp to 500C)<br />
00.01 R 850 (?: raise, asap, to 850C)<br />
00.10 H 850 (10 min: hold temp at 850C)<br />
00.01 C 560 (?: cool, asap, to 560C)<br />
If I could switch off here that would save me lots of time!!!!! But ......<br />
Annealing: (this is the bit that takes the time!)<br />
00.17 H 560 (17 mins: hold at 560C)<br />
00.34 C 540 (34 mins: cool to 540C)<br />
00.17 H 540 (17 mins: hold at 540C)<br />
00.34 C 520 (34 mins: cool to 520C)<br />
00.17 H 520 (17 mins: hold at 520C)<br />
End (generator can be switched off).<br />
The timings suggests this programme should take 3 hours 11 minutes (which would be great!) however 1 minute to raise from 500C to 850C is not feasible so I'm timing that and the cooling from 850C to 560C.<br />
Five and a half hours later ....... heating up from 500C to 850C took exactly one and a half hours, cooling from 850C to 560C took fifty minutes, which makes the whole programme five hours and thirty minutes (cost of 6.60€), which is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If I can make sure the kiln's full to capacity and I do the washing, hoovering etc, at the same time, then it's not too extravagant to run this programme occasionally.<br />
Brett has started putting in his fence posts, it really changes the look of the Quinta.<br />
<br />
20th February<br />
Happy Birthday Lily (dog!), we've had her three years today.<br />
Opening the kiln was exciting; (1) I'd put in a couple of pieces of bunting with different techniques for holding the fastenings (both worked)<br />
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(2) I made some textured glass by slumping it over cut out pieces of fiber paper (worked nicely)<br />
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(3) the Greenman mould was very disappointing, hardly any definition despite obvious signs of overfiring (spiky edges).<br />
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I have a VERY IMPORTANT job, lining up the fence posts; I stand one end of the fence line shouting/gesticulating "away/towards" until all the posts are nicely in line. Unfortunately today the fence line was so long I couldn't actually see the post I was supposed to be lining up with!<br />
<br />
21st February<br />
A frosty start to the day.<br />
One of the roundels I cemented has a thin slice of agate plated with pale purple glass - the cement oozed between the two pieces! I have taken it apart; a horrible, filthy job. The roundel wasn't actually that impressive once it was finished; so I am going to add some sandblasting to some of the glass - I've been masking off areas with PVA glue and sticky backed plastic.<br />
<br />
22nd February<br />
Every day I look at my herb garden and think "I must weed that" - today I started (it's going to take a while!).<br />
Lily found a ginger tabby cat (presumably male) in the vegetable garden a couple of days ago; he was very beaten up, with scratches/bites on his head and legs. He was also petrified of Lily who was barking enthusiastically at him. Today he was on my potting table in the polytunnel; after extracting a yapping, excited, Lily, I walked back to the house to get him some cat biscuits - maybe he can keep the voles away from my vegetables? I think I'll call him Orlando (the Marmalade Cat).<br />
Brett started putting the fence wire on the posts; soon we'll be full fenced. Brett took the dogs with him, he came back with just Looby; I realised this when I heard Lily barking from a distance! She was the other side of the goose field fence (off our quinta); I got her back and now she's licking all her paws like crazy (I can't see anything wrong with them) - do dogs get stung by stinging nettles?<br />
This evening we're off to dine with Alex & Karina.<br />
<br />
23rd February<br />
Lily is fine this morning, so I think it WAS stinging nettles.<br />
We had a lovely evening at A&K's, we didn't leave until close on midnight (which is jolly late for us). I came home with masses of seeds (some of which I have no idea what they are as the packet is written in Russian - I wouldn't know how to enter that into Google Translate!!!). This morning I sowed the tomatoes (mainly black varieties which I think have more flavour), peppers, chilies and pumpkins. She all gave me loads of herb seeds, so this afternoon it was back to weeding the herb bed; I'm finding lots of Lemon Balm seedlings.<br />
<br />
24th February<br />
We went into CB to buy paint for the field gates - the old gates need a fresh coat and Brett's making several new ones. We were going to buy the same 'duck egg blue' we have on the island but we think it could fade a lot in the sunshine, so we've gone for a darker shade, rather National Trust looking (much like Payne's Grey mixed with blue). Still no Ross Cobb chicks or black POL hens!<br />
<br />
24th February<br />
I'm so bored with weeding the herb bed, it's taking forever, so this afternoon I painted the field gate to Lavender paddock - it took more than two hours!!! Then, after I had cleaned my brushes, Brett came along and pointed out the bits I'd missed!<br />
<br />
<br />
26th February<br />
Rather damp and chilly today ......<br />
We had a bit of a smallholding start to the day (1) spraying the goats - the warmer weather has resulted in the emergence of parasitic insects, ticks, lice, mosquitoes etc. (2) culling of muscovy males - last years ducklings are fully grown and fighting one another and raping their mothers (the females went to other quintas), so it was time for them to go.<br />
We were going to go to the olive oil festa in Prohenca a Velha (mainly to ask where OUR olive oil was!) but it was too cold for an outing, so we lit the fire and stayed in.<br />
<br />
27th February<br />
We went into Fundao on a whim, as we need chickens NOW, and we were lucky; we came home with six black POL hens, thirteen (he gave us one free!) Ross Cobbs and I bought two rosemary bushes (one upright, one prostrate) at three euros each.<br />
We had a letter in our postbox from our bank (N&P), they're closing all current accounts! So now we have to open a UK account (with free withdrawals in Europe) from Portugal - bugger!<br />
We fed the sheep and goats at 5.45, they all came in to eat. 6.00 I went to lock Hazel, Georgia and their two kids in their shed and there's Jelisa giving birth to twins - she was eating 15 minutes ago!<br />
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Literally 15 minutes old!</div>
We increased our animals by 21 today!<br />
<br />
28th February<br />
It's March tomorrow!<br />
Both Jelisa's kids are male - shame.<br />
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Clean and dry after a night in the shed. </div>
Brett took the dogs with him while he continued fencing; he came home at lunch time minus Lobby (he hadn't even realised she'd run off, bloody dog), looks like she's on heat again. I thought she'd done all that last month, she had all the signs but this time she's got a glowing red 'bitch bit'!<br />
<br />
1st March<br />
Happy St David's Day!<br />
I'm halfway through weeding the herb bed, the area that is left is a thick carpet of mint, chickweed and clover - I'm getting really bored with it now, I decided to paint a gate ..... Unfortunately, we both agree, we don't really like the blue/grey paint we bought the other day! So it's back to a choice between green (that we already have, but the paint is an interior emulsion which doesn't protect the wood) or pale blue (like our island), AND then we didn't have any pale blue paint left, so that was the end of that idea!<br />
All day long there's Looby pacing and whining (she'll be like this for 2-3 weeks) and Jelisa bleating because she's lost a kid (or two), I've seen her down on her belly crawling under the decking looking for them. Between the two of them I'm slowly going mad ........<br />
Ok the quinta is dog proof, Brett fenced the last gap today - this should mean I don't have to worry about Looby anymore.<br />
In the end I spent the day in my studio, tidying up and preparing glass for firing tomorrow evening when I have a craft meeting.<br />
<br />
2nd March<br />
We took a quick trip into Penamacor and on the way back called in to see Annika & John (who move here permanently last week). Thomas was there doing some plastering; he and Diane went to the festa at the weekend and asked about our oil (they haven't had theirs either). Apparently the cold weather over Christmas caused the oil to solidify in the tank, we have to wait for it to warm up, so the oil become liquid, then it can be drawn off (proves it's cold pressed!!!!).<br />
As we use the generator whilst we have the craft meeting I prepared glass for a long firing.<br />
Looby was allowed outside untended, she didn't go off quinta! She did spend an awfully long time just staring at our neighbor's quinta; our neighbours are selling up, after six months.<br />
<br />
3rd March<br />
Rainy and cold.<br />
Paper making was fun, if a bit messy.<br />
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My firing wasn't a great success, but lessons were learnt and I spent the day cutting glass for my next experiments.<br />
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This stuck to mould!</div>
Bloody sheep and goats, they've been let out of their field and put the other side of the Portuguese gate, so they can eat all the lush growth in and around the vegetable garden; they spent most of the day lying next to the Portuguese gate asking to be let back into their field!<br />
<br />
4th March<br />
Tidied and cleaned the house, made cheesecake; we have Nicky & Rich coming to Sunday lunch (roast mutton, sweet potatoes, squash and Swiss chard - all from the quinta!).<br />
Brett shut the sheep and goats on the vegetable garden - so they spent all day huddled next to the gate!!!<br />
<br />
5th March<br />
Ok so they have grazed some of the vegetable garden - all my Swiss chard, bloody typical.<br />
Lunch was fun; Nicky & Rich always make us laugh.<br />
Poor old Jelisa's udder is HUGE, especially on one side; so I decided to milk her, to make her more comfortable ....... the electric milker didn't work (there was no suck), and milking by hand was nigh on impossible, as her udder was so taut - Diane has said we can borrow their hand milker (meantime we've ordered a new pump from Amazon Spain, hopefully it will arrive quickly).<br />
<br />
6th March<br />
Decided to pop into CB to (1) buy new paint for the gates, (2) get more fence posts and (3) to pick up milker from D&T; as we passed by the sheep and goats we saw that the kid we bought last year had kidded (she's only a baby herself).Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-49946642693494003742017-02-11T23:14:00.000+00:002017-02-12T17:52:59.825+00:00FIRING MY KILN at last .......19th January<br />
Brett continued pruning the olive trees, with the help of the goats and kids!<br />
I broke our electric sheep shears taking the wool from the ram's pelt; I then had to resort to using a sharp knife. The wool is filthy and fully of seeds and other vegetation; <br />
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it's going to take a lot of work to prepare it for washing, carding and then spinning. On a positive note it's nice long fibres which I hope will spin well.<br />
<br />
20th January<br />
Still cold and DRY. The lack of rain, since before Christmas, has resulted in quite a few wildfires in Portugal, which is worrying.<br />
Another day of pruning and cleaning wool.<br />
<br />
21st January<br />
My hip is still giving me problems, bloody annoying. I took it easy today in an effort to give it some rest.<br />
<br />
22nd January<br />
We just managed to cram the butchered ram into the freezers (we had to take out a load of sundries tomatoes and other stuff to make some room).<br />
A 5kgs leg of mutton is marinating in red wine, herbs and spices <br />
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- we've invited Alex, Karina, Alex's dad (Alex), Thomas and Diane for a roast tomorrow evening.<br />
Brett started listing all the things we now do towards being smallholders (it makes us feel positive/smug!) .....<br />
*Being almost self sufficient in lots of food and drink<br />
Meat: pork, mutton, chicken, duck and soon goat<br />
Preserving: Canning, drying and salting meat, fruit and vegetables (a smokehouse is in the pipeline), tomato products (passata, sun dried, sundried paste)<br />
Eggs<br />
Goat milk<br />
Cheese<br />
Olive oil<br />
Olives<br />
Wine<br />
Sweet potatoes<br />
Squash<br />
Seasonal vegetables and fruit<br />
*Fire wood (heating)<br />
*Wool products: spinning and hopefully soon weaving and knitting and we want to learn to tan<br />
*Making my own clothes: sewing, knitting<br />
*Electricity (solar)<br />
*Water (from our wells)<br />
*<br />
There is still lots more that we want to do like growing food for our animals.<br />
<br />
<br />
23rd January<br />
Brett is making a great job of the trees (and we'll have lots of wood next year).<br />
I spent the day preparing for the evening. The meat was studded with garlic and rosemary and put in the stove at 1.00 to cook long and slow (6-7 hours). Roast sweet and ordinary potatoes, saluted Swiss chard, lemon glazed carrots, mint sauce and gravy (Diane volunteered to do pudding - thank you). And the perpetual cleaning, tidying and floor washing ......<br />
<br />
24th January<br />
Wow, it was a brilliant evening; lots of talking and laughter. The meat was succulent and tasty, in fact all the food went together perfectly. People had seconds and thirds!!!! And Diane's trifle bowl was more or less licked clean. We've all been invited to celebrate Chinese New Year at D&T's on Saturday evening.<br />
On the down side there was an awful lot of greasy washing up!!!<br />
Hmmmm my spinning seems to have deteriorated; the yarn keeps breaking, I think I'm drafting to finely (look at me with my spinning terminology!).<br />
Bloody hell apparently we have a FINAL DEMAND electricity bill back in Wales (we asked for all correspondence to come via email) - something else to sort out.<br />
<br />
25th January<br />
We were sent a copy of the final demand today, which also threatens legal action if we don't contact them by 26th (tomorrow)!!!! The bill is for £221 for a month period when the Barn was empty, as we were between tenants. I paid the bill as we don't want to be referred to debt collectors and now we are contesting it ..... bet we don't get far with that - sometimes life is very stressful.<br />
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26th January<br />
The weather forecasting, in Portugal, is pretty spot on; after a very cold spell yesterday's 10 day forecast was 10 days of persistent rain - this morning we woke up to a very grey, gloomy wet day. The dogs refused to get up or eat - I think they were of the opinion it was still early morning!<br />
This evening we decided to put the sheep and goats in the shed overnight; we just opened the gate to their field and Sharon led the way - she wanted to be in the dry! They are so easy to handle.<br />
And we're back to living in a cave!<br />
<br />
27th January<br />
It was a horrible wet night, but at least our animals were all dry.<br />
I made a couple of cheese cakes and Cajeta (Mexican caramel sauce), which is made by boiling goat's milk and sugar for hours on the stove; I cooked mine for a good 4 hours, it's gone a lovely colour and tastes great, but it's rather runny - I didn't want it to burn as it thickened (for my first attempt I'm happy).<br />
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28th January<br />
Woke up to fog and frozen animal water - miserable day.<br />
I carded and spun lots of wool (I'm definitely improving, though it's slower than I would like!).<br />
This evening we went to Thomas & Diane's to celebrate Chinese New Year (year of the Rooster), with Alex & Karina, Alex's dad (Alex) and Pam & Mark.<br />
<br />
29th January<br />
We had a brilliant evening and the food ...... well it was a banquet! We had four courses:<br />
(1) Fried Chinese dumplings with dipping sauces, barbecued ribs, prawn crackers.<br />
(2) Peking duck with pancakes, and a pork and garlic dish (Alex).<br />
(3) Whole baked fish (grouper) and rice.<br />
(4) Lemon cheesecake (mine) and profiteroles (Karina).<br />
The Chinese dumplings were my favorite, I need to make them!<br />
There was so much food, I was full by the second course, and it was all delicious.<br />
I ... continued to spin (until I had about the same amount of spun yarn (single ply) on two spindles), plied my yarn (two ply), constructed a Niddy Noddy, wound my first ever Skein (winding the plied yarn onto the Niddy Noddy) and set my yarn (by washing it in hot water).<br />
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The good news is there's nothing wrong with my hip joint, the bad news is I have something wrong with my piriformis (which in turn aggravates the sciatic nerve) and everytime it seems to be on the mend I manage to fall over and irritate it again!<br />
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30th January<br />
Last night was the first time for several weeks that I haven't needed a hot water bottle.<br />
We moved the sheep from Lavender Paddock to the Goose Field - they're so good and easy to move!<br />
My spinning is slowly improving, I'm getting far less lumps and bumps - though once I've got good at it I'll be putting lumps and bumps in on purpose!<br />
<br />
31st<br />
The generator exhaust has sooted up quite badly, Brett looked it up; 'cold stacking' occurs if the generator isn't run to capacity on a regular basis (it's excess fuel burn off, or something - I don't really understand!) - it's a big generator and all our household appliances hardly touch it's capability. To clear the blockage it needs running under load .... i.e. I had to turn on my kiln!!!!! I have been putting this off, as I haven't used it for over five years, and, I've kind of forgotten how to programme the controller! But 'push came to shove' and I worked it out. I did a very simple trace paint firing, 2 hours to 650C, hold for 10 minutes, switch off. It took less than two and a half hours, the generator was fueling the house at the same time (I even hoovered!). I'll wait until the morning to open the kiln, it'll take a while to cool down. Exciting .......<br />
Even more exciting, Henry is planning a road trip to visit us (happy days!).<br />
<br />
1st February<br />
Happy Birthday Stephanie! XXXXX<br />
The firing worked ok except for one piece that was painted on both sides; the underside didn't fire, and washed off. I'm assuming it needed longer soaking to reach 650C, so today's firing will soak for 30 minutes.<br />
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For today firing I painted (or rather scratched out) two greenmen, prepared the greenman mould I bought in September (with several coats of separator) and added green enamel (sieved) to a very clear area of turquoise and clear glass (given to me years ago by Jan) which I will slump into the textured mould. I'm getting excited about my kiln again!<br />
<br />
2nd February<br />
Well that didn't work then! The painted pieces were fine but the glass on the mould hardly moved (I can see a couple of dimples, if I squint!); so it either needs heating to a higher temperature or holding for longer - or both. Whichever it is, it means running the generator for longer, which equals more cost for each firing.<br />
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It was a horrid wet night and our sheep and goats were out in it; they looked ok this morning, but we'll put them in the shed tonight.<br />
I painted glass in the studio with the heater on full blast, Brett watched a film - it wasn't the weather for doing much. We didn't use the generator today, so no firing was done, but I put stuff in for tomorrow.<br />
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3rd February<br />
The sheep and goats were eager to come out this morning (the shed gets very smelly overnight and they all came out snotty); as always, they were easy to move.<br />
It was another horrid wet day; I carried on with my glass painting and the kiln went on (can't unload it until the morning though).<br />
The weather is going to be horrendous overnight, so we put the goats and sheep in the shed; they can come out in the morning.<br />
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4th February<br />
Happy Birthday Joyce xxx<br />
Bastard bloody ram is going in the freezer (sooner rather than later as far as I'm concerned). I was on field duty, when Brett let the sheep and goats out of the shed, my job was to get them into the field and shut the gate. I was just encouraging the last stragglers through when bastard ram butted me in the front of both knees! Hyperextending them painfully. Now I have throbbing joints and can hardly walk.<br />
Another crappy day. I worked on my glass painting.<br />
Brett sat me down and asked how long did I envision keeping up this lifestyle as I have had several injuries recently that mean I can't function well. I pointed out that none of the injuries were down to clumsiness or old age, they were all animal related (and I don't think tripping over the barbed wire was my fault either); so perhaps a few years yet, what else would we do?<br />
<br />
5th February<br />
And after all that, today I can hardly walk!!! My knees are sore and stiff (but I still maintain it wasn't my fault).<br />
I'm very happy with yesterday's firing; today I got to paint detail (the fun bit) - my projects are coming together nicely.<br />
Brett spent his time rotorvating the polytunnel - time to get planting!<br />
<br />
6th February<br />
Happy Birthday Alexandra! XXX<br />
I sowed beans, peas, salad stuff and courgettes in the polytunnel today - feeling virtuous!!!<br />
My knees are improving, no lasting damage done.<br />
<br />
7th February<br />
I can nearly walk without limping (though stairs/styles are a challenge).<br />
I spent quite a while in my studio, painting glass; now I'm hoping for rain so that I can use the generator without feeling wasteful!<br />
Breakfast cereal here in Portugal is ridiculously expensive, and, most of it is crammed full with chocolate (disgusting), so I've started making my own granola - it's very, very tasty.<br />
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8th February<br />
I'm preparing as much glass as possible, to go in the kiln; as several days of rain are forecast from the weekend onwards.<br />
Brett is still pruning olive trees, we have a good supply of wood for next winter.<br />
I made lemon drizzle cake and flapjack as Judith is coming for afternoon tea tomorrow (postponed until Friday).<br />
<br />
9th February<br />
Happy Birthday Mark.<br />
I continued to glass paint, whilst Brett pruned.<br />
This afternoon we popped round to P&M's to give Mark his birthday present - homecured, freerange bacon!!!<br />
<br />
10th February<br />
A quick dash into CB to buy some bits (unfortunately still unable to find POLs or Ross Cobb chicks).<br />
This afternoon Judith came round - we had a good old natter.<br />
This evening it snowed!!!! (First time since we've been here).<br />
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11th February<br />
Diane & Thomas popped in this morning which was nice. Diane came bearing a huge jar of Dijon mustard (cost less than the tiny jar I bought in mini-p!) which she bought when she was in France last week (thank you Diane).<br />
I spent the day in my studio glass painting - I'm having such fun, I have a couple of pieces ready to lead.<br />
When the mother goats are put away, in the evening, they have to be fed separately as Hazel bullies Georgia; so Georgia and her kid (Bauble) go in the shed with a bucket and Hazel and her kid (Tinkerbell) are shut in the corral; so the tasks are (1) to separate the goats into the correct pairs and (2) to get the muscovys out of the corral - as soon as they see the bucket they head straight for the goat pen, and it's not a case of pushing them out with your foot, they have to be physically lifted out and, as one is removed, two more replace it, they're so determined! Once the food is finish Hazel and Bauble are allowed in the shed.<br />
I sent Helen a photo of a roundel that is ready to be leaded up; she showed it to her friend and she, the friend, has expressed on interest in buying it!!!!! I'm not even that bothered whether she buys it or not, it's just nice to have my work admired!<br />
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<br />Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-74656314105523080962017-01-18T20:00:00.002+00:002017-01-18T20:00:26.310+00:00MEAT .......3rd January 2017<br />
And now I have a sore throat and swollen glands ....... on the plus side I'm not so achy!<br />
Christmas decorations came down today; the good thing about the natural decorations is they went straight on the compost heap.<br />
So it's the start of a New Year and, as usual, healthy eating is on the menu! I made a jar of coleslaw (1 kilo cabbage, 15g salt) to start us off with healthy guts. I also refreshed my water and milk kefirs, which I have rather neglected recently. The Kombucha is fine, as I want it vinegary.<br />
We have guests coming for dinner on Saturday, as one is a vegetarian I'm cooking veggie; today I made goat milk halloumi (clearing out the freezer ready for 1/2 ton of pork!).<br />
Brett ordered a new chainsaw Sunday night - it arrived this afternoon, how's that for delivery? Only he didn't actually get it, the deliveryman demanded cash payment, but, as Brett had put his card details in when he ordered the chainsaw he was worried he'd be paying twice.<br />
<br />
4th January<br />
Lola & Vince brought a local man, Helder and his wife, Marijka (French lady who came to my studio opening, she also used to be a vet), round to look at our big boar ...... they're coming back, with a hunter, either tomorrow morning or Saturday afternoon - so we have lots if organising to do! Feeling rather stressed.<br />
Brett has his chainsaw.<br />
<br />
5th January<br />
A total smallholding day .......<br />
Georgia had her kid, the cutest little girl.<br />
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And big boar went!<br />
I didn't watch his actual demise (he was done humanely) but I helped with the rest of the process. First he had to be lifted onto a makeshift bench - that was a feat in itself as we estimate he weighs around 200-250 kilos. 1. His bristles were burnt (blow torch) and scrapped off with bits of wood. 2. His skin was heated and the top layer scrapped with blunt knives, our black pig turned pink! 3. Using water and a piece of broken tile or cement block (like pumice stones) his skin was smoothed. 4. Rinsed. 5. Very sharp knives were used to shave off rogue bristles 6. Rinsed again. 7. Gutted. 8. Rinsed. 9. Hung up, in the pole barn, to dry.<br />
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The whole process took 3 - 4 hours. Then, of course, I had to feed everyone - homemade vegetable soup (I got up early this morning to make it!), cheese and meat board, chicken liver pate, ricotta cheese (made from whey, left over from making Halloumi) and bread (homemade in Lola's village), wine and beer.<br />
Helder is concerned that wild dogs are going to come onto our quinta in the night and eat the boar, his solution - take him off the block and tackle, tie him to the top of a tall ladder, prop it up in the barn during the day then ...... Brett and I (!!!!!) carry it between us and store it in the workshop overnight????? Six of us could hardly lift him onto the bench ..... we vetoed that idea whilst giggling maniacally!<br />
<br />
6th January<br />
A full on day of butchery; we've processed about 1/3 of the meat and the freezer is half full.<br />
I managed to break the food grinder on my lovely new stand mixer, can't find spare parts for it (and Amazon has stopped selling it) - feeling annoyed.<br />
Georgia needed milking this evening as the kid is only drinking from one side. We could have done without that today.<br />
Absolutely shattered.<br />
<br />
7th January<br />
Another full on day .....<br />
First off I had to make chocolate mousse for dinner this evening (we hadn't arranged for the boar to go when we invited our guests).<br />
Next butchering the middle 1/3 of the boar (bacon and chops section).<br />
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Then cleaning and tidying the house.<br />
Finally preparing and cooking; spaghetti with Halloumi, sundries tomatoes and olives (all ours), mixed salad and garlic bread followed by caramelised oranges and chocolate mousse.<br />
So tired .......<br />
Then our guests arrived (Martin & Ann and Marc & Mieke). It was a pleasant evening but Brett and I were not terrible entertaining.<br />
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8th January<br />
Butchered the final 1/3; the freezer is full to capacity, <br />
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we have a big ham (leg) drying in a box of salt and we have two slabs of belly being salted for bacon.<br />
And we are absolutely shattered!!!!!<br />
We paid the hunter 20€ for his work, but Helder (who we met for the first time on Wednesday) refused to take payment as we are 'as meus amigos' (my friends), so we took round a 5.5 kilo leg joint for him, his reaction ....... "why?", he just doesn't see why he needs payment for his services - Portuguese people are exceedingly generous. Brett is going to leave a joint for Mr Louis to find tomorrow morning, on his way to work.<br />
<br />
9th January<br />
Brett went off to work and I thought I would have a not too strenuous day - wrong!<br />
First I did all the animal (except pigs, Brett does them before he leaves) which nowadays I'm rather nervous of; the horned ram is decidedly bullish, he bowls over at least a couple of the flock whenever I'm in there, I spend my whole time making sure there's something between him and me!<br />
Next the washing, that took two hours - I know precisely as there's a diary to note when the generator is switched on/off.<br />
Receiving a disturbing email from Carmarthenshire County Council, that has left me very stressed and worried!<br />
Then tidying, sweeping, cleaning the house.<br />
Refreshing all the kefirs again! I just didn't have time to do it over the last few days.<br />
Making fudge for Nick's birthday tomorrow.<br />
In addition there's all manner of little jobs like cleaning the solar panels, milking the goat, turning and rubbing the bacon with salt, chopping wood and lighting the fire, continuing to render lard (don't know when I'll use it but I hate waste) etc.<br />
All to soon it was time to do animals again .......<br />
Oh yes, and cook dinner.<br />
<br />
10th January<br />
Happy Birthday Nick!<br />
Brett went to work, I did my chores, at lunchtime Pam came and picked me up, we went into Penamacor to the Pizza restaurant to celebrate Nick's birthday - the meal was much better than the one served on my birthday!<br />
This afternoon Bauble (Georgia's kid named by Jacob) went missing (I'd forgotten that little habit these kids have). Georgia came to the house to tell us, Brett had the generator on as he was doing the animal's water (the pump uses a lot of electricity), 1/2 an hour later we still hadn't found her and it was soon going to get dark, he turned the generator off and there she was, curled up behind the generator - 90 decibels and she was sleeping!!!<br />
Tomorrow Brett is driving the tractor to Jo's so that they can use it to tension the fence. He has to drive down the tracks as the tractor is not allowed on the road - hope he doesn't get lost!<br />
<br />
11th January<br />
It took Brett 65 minutes to get to Jo's, but at least he didn't get lost - good old Google Earth!<br />
It sucks being old!!!! Now I've got an aching hip, it started when I was kid hunting yesterday and it throbbed all night, I couldn't get comfortable; my joints haven't been right since I tripped over the barbed wire, they're kind of 'tender', but at least the sore throat has gone now.<br />
It's hard for me to climb over the style into the goose field again; before Christmas it was my knee giving me jip (from being jostled and knocked by sheep), now it's my hip .........<br />
When Brett was driving home on the tractor he met Fabia (Italian), she came round for a cup of tea and reiterated that she wants me to make a window for her yoga studio when it's built. She also asked about buying a couple of goat kids (Tinkerbell and Bauble), but Brett wants to keep females, to expand our milk flock.<br />
We had our first boar meat this evening, tenderloin ..... and it was (tender)!<br />
<br />
12th January<br />
Well I should be very healthy, for lunch I had: fresh apple and orange with kefir cheese, sauerkraut and water kefir!<br />
This afternoon I carded lots of wool.<br />
The big horned ram is becoming more and more of a bully (I'm petrified of him) so we're dispatching him next Wednesday A&K are coming to help/give moral support.<br />
What a small world I just came across my friend Helen (from our village in Wales, one of the 'Crafty Bitches') on a Facebook page (for spinning art yarn) based in America.<br />
<br />
13th January<br />
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM!!! XXXXXXX<br />
A bitterly, biting cold wind today; had we been in Wales I'd have predicted snow. It's probably snowing in the Estrellas; I didn't look at the mountains, when I fed the sheep, I was too busy watching horned ram (he seemed very interested in me this morning) and racing round quickly so I could get back inside.<br />
Poor old Brett is working outside this morning, I don't envy him.<br />
The bacon is cured (five days of rubbing with salt).<br />
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14th January<br />
Icy .......<br />
A quick trip into CB to get the dog's worm pills (Lily is much better than she was).<br />
<br />
15th January<br />
I had to break the ice on the animal water.<br />
Best night's sleep I've had for a while - if you don't count being woken up by Lily baying at 1.30!!!!! Something walked past ten house and her, very sensitive, hunting nose smelt it.<br />
I did some spinning today, my most successful yet! I actually enjoyed it.<br />
Shit, shit, shit I flossed my teeth, after dinner this evening, and a piece of filling came out - I hate going to the dentist.<br />
<br />
16th January<br />
Tooth seems fine - I'll put off the dentist trip for as long as possible!!!<br />
So we got up early this morning and off we went to Fundao to buy poultry (black POL and Ross Cobs); we came back with nothing, the market was really sparse, the only POLs we saw were brown (Warren type) and looked really sickly and that was it, other than rabbits.<br />
Ever since we bought the gas cooker I have harangued it and moaned loudly, about it burning everything, to anyone who would listen ........ at Christmas I learned that when thought I was turning it down I was actually turning it UP! Today I cooked brownies in it and they cooked perfectly in 40 minutes!<br />
<br />
17th January<br />
We had a fabulous craft meeting last evening. Tina showed/taught us how to make felted wrist warmers (mitts) and, as I was the host, I got to keep the demonstration pair!<br />
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Brett started pruning the olive trees - he's making a brilliant job of it.<br />
<br />
<br />
18th January<br />
Very cold today, nearly 1" of ice on the animal's water.<br />
Horned ram went today; we borrowed a stun gun which made the job humane and very quick. Alex & Karina came to help and offer moral support. The whole process went very smoothly.<br />
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Removing the fleece</div>
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He'll hang for 3-5 days</div>
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-72665623633888009002017-01-02T18:41:00.001+00:002017-01-02T18:58:06.682+00:00YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND .........18th December<br />
Making Christmas crackers.<br />
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19th December<br />
A quick trip into Spain to buy some nice Christmas food and drink (anchovies, razor clams, spring onions, sherry .....).<br />
Finished making crackers.<br />
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20th December<br />
And today into CB to finish food shopping and that's it, no more shopping hopefully until the New Year.<br />
Present wrapping this afternoon and I'm so frustrated - the stupid sellotape doesn't stick and we purposely bought it from Jumbo rather than a China shop!<br />
Chicken liver pate made.<br />
I made some Chai tea concentrate, as I don't fancy coffee in the evenings.<br />
CHAI TEA CONCENTRATE:<br />
Simmer together in for 20 minutes:<br />
1 pint water<br />
2-3 ozs muscovado sugar<br />
2-3" fresh ginger (cut into thin slices)<br />
15 cloves<br />
5 allspice<br />
1 tspn black peppercorns<br />
2 tspn cardamom seeds<br />
3 star anise<br />
1 tspn vanilla extract<br />
Take off heat, add 5 teabag (being me I used 8 used teabags!) and seep for 10 minutes.<br />
Strain liquid off, when cool bottle and keep in fridge.<br />
To make a cup of chai mix 1 part chai concentrate, 1 part water and 2 parts milk in a saucepan, heat to taste.<br />
<br />
21st December<br />
I am shattered; for some reason my house tidying turned into a major 'spring clean', I even cleaned the oven! But the house does look clean and tidy.<br />
<br />
22nd December<br />
L&J arrived at lunchtime - let the festivities begin .....<br />
<br />
23rd December<br />
Happy Birthday me!!!<br />
I had a lovely day doing crafty things with Lesley - decorations for house, table etc. Drying slices of oranges and clementines (lovely smell).<br />
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Brett and Jacob did 'man' things, like driving the tractor and mucking out the animals.<br />
We went into Penamacor this evening; the idea was to eat, walk around the market, and watch the huge bonfire being lit at midnight - it didn't quite go to plan ...... The market was practically non existent, the restaurant was heaving so service was slow and for some reason our food was cold/uncooked (so pretty poor, it's usually good there - but, in a way, it added to the strange evening) and we (not just me it was a group decision) didn't last until midnight*! However we still had fun, we went into the Hub (pop up bar) were I was handed a beaker of Bailey's (birthday treat) by Jamie - which definitely helped!<br />
* Later we spoke to friends who went to the midnight event; they said it was heaving with people, masses of things going on (people on stilts, people dressed in illuminated butterfly costumes (why?), bands, children acting out the nativity etc etc). It all started around 11.30 (when we were snuggily back home).<br />
<br />
24th December<br />
A full on day of Christmas preparation making/preparing: trifle (one with and one without sherry), turkey into brine (on the decking), <br />
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ham out of brine (boiled and baked), mince pies, finish bacon, stuffing, bacalhau (traditional Christmas eve meal in Portugal) - I am shattered, but everything is prepared (thanks to all my helpers) and the house looks and smells lovely.<br />
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Merry Christmas ......</div>
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25th December<br />
Merry Christmas ......<br />
Well I had some amazing presents:- from Brett I had a spinning wheel (now I have to learn to spin properly!), <br />
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Not my actual one (that still needs to be assembled).</div>
it was the year of scarves (I gave two and received three), and too many more to mention.<br />
Diane & Thomas came for drinks at midday and P&M joined us for lunch.<br />
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We ate too much food! We played Christmas games and, once P&M had gone, we relaxed in front of the fire and watched 'Home Alone'.<br />
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Jacob had an interesting present, it went in the fire to make colored flames.</div>
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26th December<br />
We took L&J to Monsanto, which they loved.<br />
Oh dear this poor man, for some obscure reason, had decided to drive into the village - the streets are incredibly narrow (it's medieval) with lots of large stones, doorsteps, window sills and balconies jutting into them, they are also very bendy and terribly steep. He was stuck across a road attempting (and failing) to turn around - several people were advising him. We went for a drink, 1/2 an hour later he was still there but now with a shattered wing mirror and a large dent in his passenger's door. Someone was directing him as he backed down the road (he couldn't see because of his broken mirror).<br />
Jacob enjoyed Home Alone so much that Brett found 'Mousehunt' for him this evening.<br />
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27th December<br />
L&J's five day visit passed very swiftly, they left just before lunch; Lesley took some lovely photos before they went, <br />
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Tinkerbell practicing her circus routine!</div>
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Grazing geese....</div>
we loved having them, they we 'easy' guests, and look forward to them coming back (hopefully in the summer?).<br />
This afternoon I spent trying to spin ...... I HATE it, I'm absolutely rubbish at it - I hope Brett is correct and that I will improve with practice!<br />
<br />
28th December<br />
A quick trip into CB and then another relaxing afternoon.<br />
We're still trying to get through all the Christmas food!<br />
<br />
29th December<br />
Happy Birthday Karina xxx<br />
Pam came round to help me with my spinning (I was threatening to burn my wheel!). She can't actually spin(!) however, me trying to teach her actually helped me to realise that I had progressed a lot since I first started (two days ago). I am now able to draft (tease out) the wool much better, control the twist (kind of) and get the yarn wound onto the bobbin. I was using a small skein of beautifully prepared wool that came with my wheel. Now I have to learn to do it with real sheepwool (straight off the sheep).<br />
Karina is going to let me have some of her wool to work with, until our sheep are sheared. It didn't register, when we bought our first sheep, that our brown ewes are a breed called Black Merino - Merino wool is a highly prized for spinning, weaving and knitting; it's a lovely soft wool that can be worn close to the skin.<br />
<br />
30th December<br />
It's not that I'm particularly clumsy, it's just that once I start falling I can't save myself - I was taking a short cut across someone else's land, there was barbed wire at ankle height (hidden amongst grass), it wrapped around my feet and there I was, splat, on the ground ..... feeling a bit teary, vulnerable and achy!<br />
We went to A&K's today to pick up some wool, I was given a bottle of Karina's rather special plum wine for my birthday (very happy!).<br />
So I started carding the washed wool K&A gave me (the rest is soaking in a tub of water from the washing I did today) and my one of my carders snapped in half (along the grain)!!!! Brett cut a piece of wood to patch it with, hopefully it will work.<br />
<br />
31st December<br />
Achy in all my joints .......<br />
Hoorah, Brett's carder repair worked! So I carded a few rollags for spinning tomorrow.<br />
P&M hosted a NYE party; we arrived at 8.00, by 10.00 I was asking if it was nearly midnight, time dragged ....... at midnight we celebrated, then suddenly it was 2.00, time sped up. It was a good night, I think I spoke to everyone at the party.<br />
<br />
1st January 2017<br />
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!<br />
Karina & Alex's dog, Mishka, disappeared two months ago; she returned home today ..... very pregnant!!!!<br />
I made some very knobby yarn from K&A's sheep's wool<br />
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it's a start! I've been 'researching' (mainly browsing Pinterest!) spinning techniques, troubleshooting etc and come across ART YARN and weaving with Art Yarn (so, of course, now I want a loom!) - it's yarn that embraces the 'imperfections'; so it's lumpy, bumpy, thick, thin, smooth, wispy, and it can be made into fabulous shawls, throws, bags etc ........ but first I have to learn to spin properly, so that I can control what I produce.<br />
<br />
2nd January<br />
Still achy (feel almost fluey!).<br />
In the last year or so I read an article on dyeing fabric with Kool-Aid (a horrible powder mix for drinking), I can't get actual Kool-Aid but bought something I think must be similar; however I never got around to using it (bet you know where this is going!). I want to try dyeing some of my yarn, I thought this would be a good experiment to use the 'Kool-Aid' with; I have hunted 'high and low', in the kitchen, living room and studio (I even took this as an opportunity to tidy the studio), and can't find the bloody stuff - so frustrating.Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-89315036991951291622016-12-18T19:40:00.000+00:002016-12-18T22:31:00.071+00:00When will I start feeling Christmasy ............23rd November<br />
It's turned very cold, there's snow on the mountains.<br />
When I was feeding and letting out the animals this morning I caught sight of a dog sized creature in the sheep's field; the sheep and goats seemed fine, no panicking or milling around, just peacefully grazing. So I thought no more about it, until this afternoon when Brett brought one of our lambs in. She has two deep puncture wounds, one in each buttock. I only got a glimpse of the animal, I had the impression it was a dog but it could have been a large fox (I wonder if it's the same creature that ate the goose eggs?). This evening all the young lambs, kids and mums are shut up in the maternity shed! Very, very, very worried ......<br />
<br />
24th November<br />
Nothing untoward happened in the sheep field overnight (relieved, but not relaxed).<br />
I've been making all these cards recently; I literally have to cut and bend card to size and shape as there's nothing like the Works/Range etc hereabouts, so no access to card blanks - not a big range of envelopes available either. So today I had to make three lots of different sized envelopes - feeling achieved!<br />
It was a beastly evening, forecast to continue all night and all tomorrow. Our older sheep and goats were in the large field with only trees for shelter as we'd moved the their shed outside the field for the babies and mums. At 11.00 p.m. we were feeling guilty that they were exposed to the elements so we cleared space for them in the pole barn then ...... I just opened the gate and called them, out of the pitch black twelve pairs of glowing eyes (I was wearing my head torch) rushed towards me, they seemed very happy to be in the barn.<br />
<br />
25th November<br />
Brett says that was the worst night we've experienced here; torrential non stop rain and wind. And the wind is bitterly cold.<br />
Lily refuses to leave the house, she has to be shouted at to get her outside for a toilet break - she can 'hold it' for an awfully long time!<br />
We fed and let out the animals, then lit the fire and candles (solar is being rationed) - it's like living in a cave!<br />
I spent the day sitting in front of the fire, wearing my head torch, drawing on pieces of lino.<br />
We're hoping to start olive picking soon.<br />
<br />
26th November<br />
Still stormy, wet, windy weather. No olive picking today!<br />
I made baked beans on (sourdough) toast for lunch (comfort food!).<br />
I managed a few hours in the studio this afternoon.<br />
Our sheep and goats are so good. While it's been stormy we've had the whole flock (18) around the house (so they have shelter) but in the evening we shut the mother's with recent offspring in the shed (because of the lamb* attack three days ago). We split them up when we give them their evening meal (just a handleful of pellets to keep them tame); the mothers know they're special and will follow me into the corral, whilst the rest follow Brett with the bucket.<br />
* The lamb is healing nicely, fingers crossed it won't happen again.<br />
The downside of having the sheep and goats around the house is that they have eaten all my herbs (Brett had to take my fencing away to build the solar shed); I'm hoping the plants will think they've just been hard pruned and will grow back<br />
vigorously!<br />
<br />
27th November<br />
Still too wet to pick olives.<br />
Brett rearranged the sheds over by the vegetable garden so that the shed at the back can be used by the sheep and goats, overnight, when it's wet.<br />
The winter squash are keeping well and are now on shelves in the big shed which looks rather impressive with the squash, trays of potatoes, trays of sweet potatoes, 5L bottles of olive oil and bottles of wine.<br />
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28th November<br />
Brett at work.<br />
I did all the chores, then cleared all my clothes and material, from the sleep platform, to the loft over the work shop - up and down stairs lots of times carrying heavy boxes (shattered). Now I have to sort out the boxes and try to throw stuff away!<br />
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29th November<br />
Brett at work.<br />
Feeling a bit crap; I had a headache all night, woke up with it and feeling sick.<br />
Pam came round for coffee, which helped as it stopped me dwelling on feeling rough, and stayed for lunch; so we had a good old chat - I can't believe she's leaving ...<br />
Bloody goose pecked me as I was putting them away - I have a big black bruise on my arm.<br />
<br />
30th November<br />
Judith (she owns a 20+ acre quinta just outside the village) came to lunch today; she's very interested in knitting, crochet, embroidery etc. so she's coming to our craft group meeting next week (Weds 7th).<br />
<br />
1st December<br />
Soddin' hunters all around us at 7.00, pellets raining down on the roof! Today is a bank holiday which is why the hunters are out in force.<br />
Hooray the generator works! I can't use it for the kiln yet, it's got to be run in for 20 hours. Even though it's raining outside and there's no solar and we have electricity courtesy of the new generator. It's much cheaper to run than the old one as it's diesel and, hopefully, we'll be able to get a card for green diesel which will make it cheaper still.<br />
<br />
2nd December<br />
We need the weather to improve so we can pick olives, apparently it's a bad year so we might only manage half as much as last year.<br />
I think I'm losing my marbles! Today I made a kefir cheese cheesecake, looked and tasted good - then I realised I'd forgotten to add the kefir cheese! I had to ladle the filling off the base, mix in the cheese and pour it back on the base - doesn't look so good now! 3 hours later ....... I grated chocolate on top, looked good and tasted wonderful (and, because of the kefir, good for you!).<br />
<br />
3rd December<br />
The weather deteriorated throughout the day, so we put the sheep in their new shed; a couple were a bit nervous, but greed prevailed. So they're now snugly ensconced in a warm, dry, shed with lots of food whilst the weather rages outside and we can relax!<br />
<br />
4th December<br />
An ok hunting day (distant shots can be heard) and the sun came out.<br />
We had a couple of hours olive picking (60 kgs) this morning, then Annika & John (people Brett works for) treated us and C&D to lunch in Meimoa (absolutely stuffed!).<br />
<br />
5th & 6th December<br />
Two more days olive picking and we've barely managed another 40 kilos (100 kilos total) it really is an abysmal year - we'll probably find all the mills have shut early now too!<br />
I've gone off the horned ram; since he attacked Brett I've been quite wary of him. I obviously got too complacent, and let my guard down yesterday - he butted me from behind, knocking me off my feet, fortunately Brett was there, as he was revving up for another attack - he's got to go .....<br />
<br />
7th December<br />
I got up early to make fudge for this evening.<br />
We took our pathetic harvest to the mill, the guy there said it was a "muito mal" (very bad) year for olives; he didn't even quibble about taking them even though: (1) we're not in his area (we're Penamacor, the mill is Idanha a Nova), but we did go there last year after some haggling and (2) they normally ask for a minimum of 500 kgs, to get your own oil back. We'll be luck to get 12 litres this year.<br />
My friend, Jo, sent me a parcel ....... boots and fabric dyes (thank you Jo xxxx).<br />
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I think the red laces will have to go!</div>
I spent the afternoon preparing the studio for Craft Club, I even washed the floor!<br />
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8th December<br />
<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">Happy Birthday Mark (I think!).</span><br />
We had great fun and merriment, last evening, making stars and wreaths out of old books and pages from magazines.<br />
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Karina and Mary displaying their wares .....</div>
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My wreaths, the one on the left has 3D stars on it.</div>
This morning I had to tidy the studio - my goodness what a mess, and the floor .......<br />
Brett is working today and tomorrow.<br />
Feeling virtuous ..... I've written all my UK cards and will post them in the morning - my writing deteriorated rapidly over the evening!<br />
<br />
9th December<br />
Cards posted.<br />
And quite a few Christmas presents purchased as Pam took me into CB today - now I'm feeling smug! Except none of the presents were for people in UK, those I still have to source.<br />
<br />
10th December<br />
I spent a fruitless day trying to find presents to send to family in UK - feeling frustrated!<br />
<br />
11th December<br />
Lots of hunters around today, fortunately not shooting too close but they were walking through some of the neighboring quintas.<br />
I'm dyeing a couple of dresses with the dye Jo sent me.<br />
<br />
12th December<br />
I was quite excited this morning as I was bartering produce this afternoon (sweet potato for horseradish roots and eggs for lemons). Originally the lady (who I'd never met) sugessted one potato for a root and she had about six, so that was fine. Then this morning she said she had 10 roots for me, so I put together over a dozen large sweet potatoes and threw in a butternut squash (I was feeling generous) - look what I got in return!!!!!!<br />
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The decking planks are less than 4" wide!</div>
Three proper roots at best, a few broken roots and some tiddlers - I feel like I've been diddled!<br />
At least Bap gave me a dozen lemons for six eggs.<br />
<br />
13th December<br />
A quick (very foggy) trip into CB to get electric wire fixings, so that we can put the pigs into their new enclosure - moving them should be entertaining as Brett is convinced he can lead them past all the lush growth (grass, weeds etc) and other obstacles with a bucket of food!<br />
Christmas is coming ..... the ham is being brined.<br />
Oh dear our internet router has died; we're back to very slow, intermittent, village Wifi, whilst standing in the open doorway, .........<br />
This means I won't be able to post my blog any time soon.<br />
We even checked that we paid our last bill (yep, on 23rd Nov) BUT, of course, we can't find the receipt (and we paid cash); so let's hope we've not been cut off.<br />
This evening we joined A&K at Sasha & Chris's for an Iranian meal; an aubergine and chicken stew (very tasty), crispy rice and salad.<br />
<br />
14th December<br />
Lola and I went to an office in Penamacor to try to get us a card for green diesel (like red diesel in uk), we would save 20-30 cents a litre. Unfortunately the guy said our tractor needed to be matriculated (licenced to drive on the road), which it isn't - so now we need to try to matriculate it (but the guy said it was very complicated). I took Lola to O Cave for lunch, to say thank you for trying (she was my interpreter).<br />
Lobby, the bitch, ran off this evening; last time she did this was in the summer (August 21st to be precise) so we've let our guard down. It's worrying because several people we know have lost dogs (and because they're lost you never know what's happened to them). Fortunately she was back within two hours and is now in 'the dog house'!<br />
<br />
15th December<br />
Well I take it back, operation 'pig move' worked a treat; big boar followed Brett and the bucket, I kept the other two following by gesticulating and waving the shepherd's crook. We now have three very happy pigs in over an acre of scrub - I wonder how long it will take them to clear it!<br />
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Spot the pigs (there's two pigs in this photo)</div>
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Big boar .....</div>
Ok, UK presents ordered and paid for (internet shopping) - I'm no longer smug about my Christmas shopping!<br />
This evening we watched 'Gravity' (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney); I spent the whole film tensed and holding my breath!!!<br />
It was tipping it down with rain when the film finished, we started worrying about the sheep and goats so ...... head torches and wellies on and a bucket of food, up we trudged to their field, called, and, with Sharon in the lead, the whole flock ran straight into their shed (it was rather hard to count all eighteen with them milling around, but we're confident they're all in there) and now we can sleep comfortably in our bed knowing they're safe and warm. On the way back Brett checked on the pigs - they had found their shelter and were sensibly sleeping inside.<br />
Apart from the lack of solar we don't mind this weather as long as our animals are comfortable.<br />
Brett is working tomorrow.<br />
<br />
16th December<br />
I had a restless night; I spent it rehearsing moving the sheep from the shed to the field, on my own, whilst avoiding the horned ram (round and round my head it went all night).<br />
When the actual event happened it was easy - they were so interested in their food they went straight into their field (after all that rehearsal I forgot the shepherd's crook - it was to ward off horned ram if he attacked!).<br />
Bloody hell there's an icy wind blowing off the mountains; why did I choose today to do the washing? Working outside on the decking, plunging my hands into lukewarm/cold water, was not nice.<br />
This evening we watched 'Pride' a feelgood film.<br />
<br />
17th December<br />
A quick trip to CB to exchange our router, and now we're back online!Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-11354193063473566272016-11-22T19:31:00.000+00:002016-11-22T19:31:56.955+00:00LINOCUTS ........31st October<br />
Happy Halloween/Samhain ......<br />
We went into CB to buy the electrical stuff to wire up the studio/workshop for lighting ready for the first spinning group meeting on Thursday.<br />
While we were in Lidl I bought a bag of sweets for any 'trick or treaters' that might come to the quinta (well the Portuguese equivalent that they do on 1st Nov, All Saint's Day), Brett says I'm wasting my time and money!!!<br />
<br />
1st November<br />
All Saint's Day<br />
Of course we didn't get and 'trick or treaters'!<br />
Brett continueded the wiring whilst I rearranged the studio so that I have the table for electrical tools (solder iron, light box, grinder etc) close to the plug sockets - it actually looks much more spacious now.<br />
I keep trying different ways to use the milk kefir - I find it rather acidic in shakes and cream cheese; today I made it into cheesecake (happy Brett).<br />
By the end of the day I had usable lights (happy me!).<br />
<br />
2nd November<br />
Day of the Dead<br />
I made chocolate fridge cake (for spinning club), chicken liver pate (for taking to dinner at P&M's on Friday), barbecued ribs (for tonight's dinner).<br />
I leaded up my latest roundel (the one with a slice of agate); hopefully I'll have time to solder it tomorrow.<br />
The Kefir cheesecake is actually ok (as I made it lemony anyway), so at last I've found a way to use milk kefir. Fortunately I really like the water kefir.<br />
<br />
3rd November<br />
Brett wired up the sockets in the workshop/studio ready for the arrival of the generator.<br />
We had a few last minute cancellations for spinning and ended up with six participants (well five participants and Lola who came for the gossip and wine!) - me, Mary, Sasha, Jo & Karina. It was a jolly meeting we all (not Lola) managed to spin some wool with a potato and knitting needle. As Jo doesn't drink alcohol I gave her water kefir; after drinking a litre she was drunk!!!! It's less than 0.5% alcohol (sorry Jo!).<br />
Brett had a male gathering, in the house (Vince, Chris and two sons); it was gone midnight when people left.<br />
<br />
4th November<br />
Heavy rain; we took the afternoon off, lit the range and watched a film 'Anomalisa' - weird!<br />
We, along with Thomas & Diane, were invited to dinner at P&M's unfortunately Diane's car broke down so they couldn't come (we did offer to pick them up).<br />
Pam had sorted all her surplus clothes to sell ready for their move, I got first choice - I spent 50€.<br />
<br />
5th November<br />
Karina knows of a knitting machine for sale, so we (Karina, Jo and me) went to look at it. It turned out it was being sold by an English woman (Anna) in Medelim. Unfortunately it couldn't cope with our homespun wool, so I'm a bit undecided (Karina and Jo are keener); I would be very interested in a spinning wheel though!<br />
<br />
6th November<br />
It's getting decidedly chilly overnight.<br />
Jo & Gordon need some fencing doing while they are away, we took Chris to meet them this morning and talk about the job. Came away with lunch - two parasol mushrooms.<br />
Lazy day today as Brett is working for Annika Monday and Tuesday.<br />
<br />
7th November<br />
Ice on the animal's water this morning.<br />
I spent most of the morning cleaning out the fridge; Brett keeps complaining there's no space in there (it's all my milk kefir, water kefir grains and various preserves he's actually moaning about!). Anyway I threw lots out (well in the pig bucket) so it's quite roomy now.<br />
I had an email from our estate agents asking us to contact Utility Warehouse re an unpaid bill. I phoned UW, of course they wouldn't give me any particulars, as the bill isn't in our name, but they're inferring that our last tenants left with outstanding debts. Now WE have to send UW all kinds of paperwork, to prove we're not liable for the debt and to make sure the service isn't interrupted as we have a new tenant being vetted atm.<br />
<br />
8th November<br />
Another icy start to the day. Brett working.<br />
Horrible finish to the day ......<br />
<br />
9th November<br />
Well we weren't expecting that ..... Trump being elected as President of USA (rather like Brexit!).<br />
It was bookclub today, but I didn't go, as I wasn't feeling sociable.<br />
<br />
10th November<br />
Jo & Gordon treated us to lunch at O Cave, I ate far too much (soup and bread roll, squid, chips and salad, fruit salad (which I left) and coffee - phew I was full (7€ a head everything included - I could have had a lite of wine too!).<br />
I spent several hours shelling the walnuts that Lola gave us, it's a jolly long winded job.<br />
This evening I tried out the long looms that Pam and I bought ages ago - I'm making some leg warmers.<br />
<br />
11th November<br />
I cut a linoprint design (3 plates) for this year's Christmas card and started printing it up.<br />
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Brett is getting a new area ready for the pigs (behind the studio/workshop) .<br />
<br />
12th November<br />
Twelve Christmas cards printed and another design (using gelli plate) started -I LOVE MY STUDIO!!!!!<br />
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Brett watched rugby - I played in studio, fab day.<br />
We were contemplating going to the wine and liqueur festa in San Migel De Acha this evening, but, as we were eating dinner, it started raining heavily - and that made our decision!<br />
<br />
13th November<br />
I don't like to tempt fate but ..... it's the 3rd month of hunting and Sundays have been blissfully quiet so far.<br />
We went to the carboot sale (as customers not sellers), it was very small; same bric a brac we've seen before, plus a food stall and preserve stall - bought nothing. But I have bartered a nuno felt stole for a stained glass panel!<br />
Carried on with Christmas cards.<br />
<br />
14th November<br />
Brett at work<br />
Karina and Emily came to pick up some of our Muscovy ducklings; as we were catching them I got a nasty wound on my little finger (muscovy's have sharp claws on their feet), it bled for ages (and is rather painful).<br />
This evening we volunteered to take Judith and her dog to the vet's in Penamacor ....... after we'd been waiting for about 10 minutes (you have to arrive early) a man turned up to say the vet wouldn't be coming as he's in Argentina.<br />
<br />
15th November<br />
Brett at work.<br />
I had a long list of chores to do including sending all the necessary paperwork to the estate agents; I needed to print a risk assessment form off the internet - typically, today, the internet stopped working! But I did do the washing, make bread <br />
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(sour dough, thank you Karina) make kefir cheese, design and cut a new Linocut for Christmas cards, shell acorns and leave to leach (tanning) in water, plus my daily chores.<br />
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<br />
16th November<br />
Bloody estate agent, every year they ask us for more and more information (never keeping a copy of what they've already had) today I posted a letter that weighed 65g (4 stamps) and we use thin paper! They needed proof that we owned the house (they've been letting it out for us for 4 years!), 2 proofs of identity for Brett, risk assessment for Legionella, electrical certificate, insurance certificate, energy efficiency rating (or whatever it's called) certificate for the house, two page form filled in re all other information needed, it just went on and on, makes me very cross .......<br />
<br />
17th November<br />
Bloody sheep!!!! I was feeding them this morning, they had an altercation and somehow I got bashed in the side of my knee - now I can hardly walk!<br />
Today was a bitter sweet day; we said goodbye to a friend who died last week. His ashes were scattered at his quinta. We had a nice little informal ceremony; his family said a few words, we toasted his memory and went for a meal.<br />
My goodness be careful what you put on social media. Our estate agents wrote to us today with links to our prospective tenant and her boyfriend's Facebook pages; they have told massive lies on their application form and the estate agents 'strongly advise' that we don't approve their application unless certain conditions are met.<br />
<br />
18th November<br />
Brett is building a shed at the front of the house to house our solar equipment and a freezer.<br />
I work on Christmas cards whilst limping a lot.<br />
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These are gelliprints not lino prints (the Merry Christmas is on a different card!)</div>
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Obviously ditto!</div>
<br />
19th November<br />
We got rid of some more Muscovys, so now they all fit in their shed - it was getting quite a squeeze.<br />
Brett watched rugby so I spent my time in the studio on a new linocut which I hope I will be able to use on glass (if the new generator ever arrives!!!!!) and paper/card.<br />
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We had a lovely evening at Vince & Lola's, didn't get home until after midnight (which is really good for me as I usually fall asleep around 11!).<br />
<br />
20th November<br />
I heard two shots in the distance .......<br />
Raining more or less all day. I worked in the studio while Brett cooked lunch, then we watched Briget Jones's Baby - very predictable! And this evening we watched The Girl on the Train - not as good as the book.<br />
<br />
21st November<br />
Gloomy, rainy, no solar charging going on .......<br />
I printed some greeting cards (from my new linocut) for my craft stock.<br />
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Jolly chilly tonight .......<br />
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22nd November<br />
The generator arrived today, all 170 kilos (that's 374lbs) of it! And we had to get it off our truck. Fortunately we bought a block and tackle the other day (in preparation for pig butchering) which made the process quite easy.<br />
The solar shed floor is concreted; it won't take Brett long to build the walls. He'll finish the boiler shed at the same time - which means soon we could have a proper shower!!!<br />
Some dastardly critter has eaten all our goose eggs! Mrs Goose has been laying eggs in her nest (the same nest she was flooded out of last time she tried to sit); last count there were ten eggs in there. After I had put them away this evening I looked to see if she'd laid any more and the nest was empty. Something has taken at least ten eggs; there were no shells or debris left, just an empty nest.......<br />
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Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-66747824384769269722016-11-01T18:44:00.000+00:002016-11-01T18:44:15.374+00:00AUTUMN BABIES ........8th October<br />
I went to feed the ewe this morning and the lamb was dead; now, of course, we're questioning and berating ourselves - why didn't we check it was feeding properly (I'm sure I saw it feeding, it had it's head up under the ewe and it's tail was wagging), not that we know why it died, it was very small and thin, very sad (but as the saying says "where there's livestock there's dead stock!). Feeling bad .....<br />
And to make us feel worse our cat has disappeared; we haven't seen her since Monday or Tuesday - we're kind of hoping she's down at the new peoples (rather than being trapped somewhere or dead), but I've called and called in that direction so it's not looking good.<br />
<br />
9th October<br />
Today we went for lunch to Nicky and Rich's (they're back for a few weeks); we had a barbecue and came home laden with fruit and bread for the pigs (we took them winter squash and sweet potatoes).<br />
<br />
10th October<br />
9.00 ALL the goats and sheep had been fed and were hanging around the troughs (hoping for seconds?).<br />
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<span style="font-family: sans-serif;">10.00 We were taking the second lot of sweet potatoes over to the sheds for storage, as usual all the goats and sheep followed us up the track - bar one, no sign of Hazel ....... found her standing next to her new born kid!!!! Another Mini-me, very cute AND she's definitely feeding!</span></div>
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So Brett saw Margo in her garden this afternoon and asked if she'd seen our cat, "oh yes, she's inside asleep on the sofa" was her reply - they've bloody well stolen her!!!! Now we've got to get her back without falling out with them.<br />
<br />
11 October<br />
Autumn has arrived; there's a definite chill in the air and the sun has disappeared. I am wearing layers with a jumper, leggings, socks and boots. And making, warm, nourishing, soup (from our own veg - carrots, squash and onions).<br />
Poor old Lily had to go to the vet's this evening; she's such a stoic little dog, she just stood there while he did all kinds of nasty things to her, she didn't whimper, snap or snarl - bless her. I love that little bitch .......<br />
Yay, we have RAIN!!!!!<br />
<br />
12th October<br />
We had to go into CB today as Brett needed to go to the dentist; his latest filling had fallen out (he wasn't charged to replace it). I bought an umbrella (as it was pouring with rain and we needed one). Then we treated ourselves to lunch out; we actually got it half price as the kebab restaurant has a loyalty card which is stamped each time you eat there and we had enough stamps for a free meal.<br />
<br />
13th October<br />
Pam came round for a sewing day (I copied the pattern of a dress she bought when we went back to the UK).<br />
Our cat graced us with her presence for about half an hour this afternoon - she's FAT!!!!! Goodness knows how much they're feeding her, and she probably sleeps all day too, I need to have words with them.<br />
5.00 Brett started feeling queasy ........ then he started being violently ill.<br />
I ate supper on my own (Brett went to bed 6.30ish).<br />
<br />
14th October<br />
I went to bed feeling fine but not able to sleep, then I started feeling queasy, 4.00 a.m. I started with the violent expulsions ........<br />
OMG have I poisoned Pam? We had soup, bread and cheese for lunch yesterday. Phew, I checked she was fine! So I'm blaming the Kebab lunch we had on Wednesday!<br />
We spent most of the day in bed feeling pretty rough. At 7.00 we had a slice of toast and a cup of tea. 8.30 I went to bed.<br />
Fingers crossed we feel rejuvenated in the morning.<br />
<br />
15th October<br />
I had a brilliant night's sleep, got up at 8.00. Did the animals (found a sheep and her black lamb in the shed with Hazel and her kid!).<br />
9.30 Hazel comes bleating up to the house, she's lost her kid; I searched to no avail, not worried yet as she did this last time - the kids go to sleep in the scrub behind the studio and are very well camouflaged.<br />
10.00 went to check on Brett, who wasn't up; apparently he had a rotten night, up every 20 mins, so still feeling rough.<br />
We checked the sheep had milk and that it was coming out, the lamb appears to be feeding and it has a round belly, so fingers crossed it'll be ok.<br />
11.30 kid found.<br />
12.00 kid lost ....... this went on all day, and each time she was lost Hazel came to the house to tell us!<br />
I finished my dress and dyed it.<br />
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This evening I had a bit of a relapse, just feeling queasy and headachy.<br />
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16th October<br />
Still not 100%!<br />
I spent the morning in the shed finding stuff to carboot next Saturday.<br />
Hazel spent all day coming to the house to tell us her kid was missing. We've found the kid's hiding place, behind a pallet of bags of cement in the pole barn; but, regardless of how many times we show her, Hazel never looks there!<br />
I spent time in the studio on another sandblasted panel.<br />
<br />
17th October<br />
Our stomachs are still feels a bit queasy when we eat, but we're not ill any longer.<br />
Today we foraged some Chicken of the Woods - don't know when we'll fancy eating it though!<br />
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I leaded up most of my panel, I might even get it soldered tomorrow?<br />
Well after saying I didn't fancy it we had the Chicken of the woods for dinner, in a creamy cheese sauce with pasta twists - it was absolutely delicious!<br />
Poor old Lil is 'not right', we'll take her to a different vet tomorrow (one who speaks English).<br />
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18th October<br />
Happy Birthday LOOBY - today is her official birthday as we have had her 3 years today.<br />
I didn't get any glass done as we had to take Lily to the vet.<br />
OMG Lily has been showing symptoms for a couple of months, we've wormed her, had her anal glands emptied and today took her to a vet in Castelo Branco ....... she (the vet) says all her symptoms point to roundworms (which we had originally diagnosed) but that the worming treatment (injection) we have been getting from the Penamacor vet doesn't actually treat these worms (it is made for farm animals not pets!) - so all this time we haven't been protecting our dogs from worms! They now have to be treated every 3 months; thank goodness they're easy to give pills to.<br />
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19th October<br />
I leaded up my first 'Hare' panel - I'm going to make a series.<br />
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Another black lamb born today - it's going to be crowded in the maternity shed this evening!<br />
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20th October<br />
We dismantled the swimming pool - it wasn't nearly as much fun as assembling it!<br />
Brett had his first bonfire (we were forbidden up to 16th Oct because of fire risk).<br />
I soldered my Hare panel and masked off the sandblasting in preparation for cementing (my least favorite job).<br />
Mini-me, goat kid (renamed Tinkerbell), is so cute; whilst we are milking her mother she insists on sitting on my lap - it drives the dogs made with jealousy!<br />
<br />
21st October<br />
I can't believe I'm still feeling queasy, it's over a week now.<br />
We've had a few drab days so the solar is really low - fridge and freezer turned off.<br />
<br />
22nd October<br />
We were up early (7.00) to go to the carboot sale. The animals were perplexed as it was still dark (and pouring with rain) as we let them out and fed them.<br />
We arrived to set up at 8.15, bringing Nicky and Rich with us. There were only four other stalls (Pete & Alan, Dee & Craig, Gary and a Swedish group selling milk kefir products) i.e. six in total.<br />
It was very slow going, but picked up around 11.00, we took around 80€; although it was advertised 9.00-15.00 we (and everyone else) left around 13.00 as it had gone very quiet.<br />
I masked off another Hare design (boxing hares) ready for sandblasting.<br />
Sharon wasn't interested in food this evening, we think she might give birth tonight (of course it's torrential rain out there!).<br />
<br />
23rd October<br />
Brett checked Sharon before he came to bed, I went out in the early hours, no sign of a kid and she's eating - OMG Brett checked her over this morning - she's got blowfly under her tail! We brought her into the pole barn, cleaned her up and applied lots of products (insect killer, antibiotic etc) and she now seems much happier.<br />
I always seem to be complaining about my woes, today it's back ache - I can hardly walk. We think it's from yesterday when I tripped at the carboot.<br />
I cemented the Hare panel, made some wide heart lead so that I can plate a piece of glass with a slice of agate, to make another roundal.<br />
<br />
24th October<br />
Sharon spent a peaceful night.<br />
We went into CB as the weather was atrocious. We didn't need much, but had lunch out (avoiding the kebab place!). I had a strawberry and banana smoothie (though it was more like a slush puppy) my goodness I got the most horrendous brain freeze ...... my head was pounding, my vision blurred (I thought I was having a stroke!), it lasted for several minutes, needless to say I didn't finish my lunch.<br />
Evenings are now spent in candlelight as the solar isn't being charged during these wet, gloomy days.<br />
<br />
25th 0ctober<br />
Raining, dull, dismal .....<br />
<br />
26th October<br />
Happy Birthday Lawrence xxxxxx<br />
Alfie (our friends' dog) has started chasing our sheep, today he had cornered one of the lambs; we've told them twice now, can't think how we're going to resolve this without falling out (because we've shot their dog!).<br />
We took some of our ducklings to Alex & Karina and now their neighbours want to buy some from us.<br />
Cut out another roundel, using the plated slice of agate as the center.<br />
Sharon is improving daily; today she came into the workshop a couple of times and started helping herself to food!<br />
<br />
27th October<br />
I got up and dressed like I've been dressing for the past couple if weeks - underwear, vest, leggings, dress, jumper, socks and boots. By 11.00 I had decided I was ill, I was obviously running a fever I was sweating so much ...... then Brett pointed out it was 27C!!!!!<br />
I made a batch of Tomatillo chutney; Jo & Gordon came for coffee, Gordon kept saying how good the chutney smelt - if we see them before they go he will have a jar for his birthday present (I like a man that appreciates chutney!).<br />
Brett dug the footings for the battery shed<br />
I dug up the last of the sweet potatoes.<br />
<br />
28th October<br />
We visited a newly arrived family, as they had bales of hay for sale. Unfortunately the hay was drenched in the rain last week. They have a fabulous plot; it's very close to Spain, bordering a lake, with far reaching views - just stunning.<br />
<br />
29th October<br />
Happy Birthday Gordon. X<br />
I spent ALL DAY cleaning and cooking - I was knackered by the time our guests arrived (Andrew, Chris & Do, Stuart & Helen). We tried to make it, as much as possible, a quinta grown meal - chicken (yep) cooked in milk (goat's) with sage (yes) and garlic for the meat eaters, chicken of the woods (foraged from track to quinta) 'stroganoff' for the veggies, roasted sweet potatoes (oh yes!) and chard (it's sprung up since the rain), chocolate mousse (our eggs). They arrive before 7.00, I left them and went to bed at 12.30, I think they left around 2.00 a.m. We consumed .....17 bottles of beer, 4L of white wine and 3-4 bottles of red wine!!!<br />
<br />
30th October<br />
A rather relaxed day today.<br />
We found some parasol mushroom for lunch; <br />
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we had them, cooked in garlic butter, on toast - delicious.<br />
This evening I made chai from scratch (cardamom pods, fresh ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns, black tea, sugar, water, milk) it was really good.<br />
<br />
31st October<br />
Trip into CB to get electrical stuff to wire up the studio/workshop.<br />
Ok Mark you can stop nagging, I've updated!!!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5292002124467937772.post-51659563448709020022016-10-07T21:04:00.000+01:002016-10-07T21:04:40.519+01:00LAMBING ....... AGAIN!!!!!13th September<br />
My last day in UK, back to Portugal tomorrow.<br />
Poor old Will was ill all night and all today (so I didn't get to spend much time with him).<br />
I had fun with Alexandra and Lawrence, when they came home, making a cardboard house and car for 'Mary the tooth fairy' (she writes letters to Alexandra).<br />
Ok so I topped up by £20 (which included a 40 minute bundle to phone Brett) on Wednesday evening (when I arrived six days ago), I had used all that credit by this morning (as soon as my 40 minute bundle went I was paying £1 per minute to call Brett!). I topped up by another £20 (again with a 40 minute bundle), I phone Brett this evening and was cut off after 7 minutes (exactly) and now have no credit ..... Not even enough to phone Orange to complain (costs 25p) and they don't have a 'contact us' email address - I am totally fed up.<br />
<br />
14th September<br />
Will drove me to Collumpton, about 1/2 an hour from him, near to where Pam has been staying all week (!), so that Pam could drive us to the airport (it seemed a waste of Will's time to take me).<br />
And then we nearly missed our plane!!!!!! We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, did a little shopping (we both bought new phones - they're unlocked and take two Sim cards at the same time). I topped up and phoned Orange - they were having problems yesterday, I was compensated with the £20 top up (from yesterday), including the 40 minute bundle! So I phoned Brett (to try to use it up), then Pam phoned Mark, then we went for a coffee, then there was an announcement "this is the last call for the Bristol to Lisbon flight" ............ then we had to RUN with our bags to the boarding gate, it seemed like we'd been 'running' (fast waddling walk more like) for miles when we passed a sign '3 minutes to gate 11' - panic, we waddled faster ....... obviously we made it!<br />
Our hostel was interesting, we had bunk beds - I bagsied the bottom (using my 'age card').<br />
We had a relaxing evening, went out for a meal, bought a bottle of Lambrusco and sat, drinking, on the hotel terrace before taking showers.<br />
<br />
15th September<br />
6.00 alarm<br />
7.00 taxi<br />
7.10 arrive at station<br />
8.23 train<br />
We weren't going to miss this one! But we did nearly forget to get off (we were so busy talking), the train stopped, I said "isn't this our stop?", we had to scrabble all our belongings together ......<br />
HOME, it's good to be home! But I am so tired, all I've done for two days was sit, but I'm shattered.<br />
<br />
16th September<br />
Life on the quinta resumed (last week seems like a dream already). I picked THREE BUCKETS of ripe tomatoes and a bucket of apples.<br />
Started processing tomatoes (passata); clean,chop out core, throw in food processor, strain off tomato water (save for drinking/cooking with), boil and simmer, pass through Mouli sieve (to remove skins and seeds), simmer until pulpy, bottle, water bathe for 30 minutes - done! 10lbs of tomates only fills ONE 2L jar.<br />
Made a double batch of chocolate fridge cake as we're invited to Diane's daughter's wedding tomorrow.<br />
It's cooler 30C, much easier on us AND the solar is working, fully charged by lunch time - thus suggesting/confirming(?) that heat was the culprit for our poor summer solar.<br />
<br />
17th September<br />
Made a card, unpacked my glass, invited Christine for lunch on Wednesday (to discuss my FIRST COMMISSION!) - must tidy up studio!<br />
2nd wedding this month: apart from Thomas & Diane we only knew Pam & Mark, which isn't good as neither of us are good at approaching strangers. The bride looked radiant, the ceremony was relaxed, an actor friend was officiating (like Joey), the bride whipped out her phone in the middle of the ceremony???? She had her vows written on it - so modern!<br />
Unfortunately food hadn't been served before we had to leave, to put animals away; we intended to return but, when Pam replied to our text ("is there any food left if we come back?) the speeches had started, so we cooked and relaxed at home.<br />
<br />
18th September<br />
Continuing processing tomatoes, today I skinned them first 17lbs took me all morning!!!! Note to self: next year grow round tomatoes for bottling as Costoluto Genovese tomatoes are hard to skin as the skins tuck into the creases!<br />
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2 x 2L and 1 x 1L jars of passata today.<br />
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We're watching a good comedy series in the evenings 'Catastrophe' written by, and starring, Sharon Horgan.<br />
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19th September<br />
More tomato processing; this time salad and tomato sauce.<br />
Oh dear, our tenants have given us a month's notice; a shame as they were good and reliable.<br />
It also means we have to stick to a stricter budget; initially that might be fun, but I'm sure it will pall if we don't get new tenants soon.<br />
Pam & Mark put their quinta up for sale in August (200,000€, they bought at the same time as us for less than us), they've actually had a few viewers. I don’t want them to leave (but at that price I'm not really worried).<br />
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20th September<br />
I helped Brett get the roofing sheets up on the roof of his pole barn - I'm going to ache tomorrow.<br />
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I have a prospective client (Christine) coming for lunch tomorrow; I spent the afternoon in the studio drawing designs.<br />
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21st September<br />
Happy Birthday Helen XXX<br />
The morning was spent cleaning and cooking.<br />
I have a definite commission for six panels (transom lights/fanlights above two doors).<br />
<br />
22nd September<br />
Into CB to get food as mini-P has shut down for 3 weeks for refurbishing.<br />
We found the craft shop that Karina told me about. I bought some (hobby) glass paint to experiment with until my kiln is working - when I got home I realised I'd bought the wrong stuff, so will have to go back and change it!<br />
I spent the afternoon in the studio practicing glass cutting.<br />
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Daft dogs relaxing!!!</div>
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23rd September<br />
I'm making a Nautilus shell roundel (I'm doing my version of something I saw on the internet) I cut all the glass today and masked off the centre for sandblasting.<br />
I made chocolate fridge cake as we were invited to C&D's for dinner, Stuart (new neighbour) was the cook.<br />
Brett clad the back of the new barn.<br />
It was a good evening, we ate (well flavored vegetable curries) under the stars (me covered in Deet!), gossiped, drank and put the world to rights.<br />
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24th September<br />
We're still harvesting vegetables (even though we have stopped watering)- buckets of tomatoes, the tomatillos have started, aubergines have been good this year, windfall apples (I need to pick them before they all fall off), a bucket of plums, onions <br />
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AND ....... SWEET POTATOES!!!! <br />
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From one potato I grew about 50 slips (I was giving them away), today we dug up half our harvest OMG with just these we have 50 - 60 pounds and some of them are HUGE.<br />
And now I have to process it all ........<br />
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25th September<br />
Only one and three quarters x 2L jars of Passata from one and a half buckets of tomatoes! Homesteading is time consuming work.<br />
Feeling a bit rough as I have earache.<br />
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<br />
26th September<br />
Still have earache.<br />
We visited M&M today at their new quinta; they have added a strawbale extension to a stone cottage, it's going to be stunning when it's completed.<br />
Processing apples (for chili apple jelly and perhaps some jars with other herbs added), also made beetroot ketchup and fruity chilli ketchup.<br />
Brett, added compost to and, rotorvated the garden where we grew potatoes, it's at the top of the veg garden so shouldn't flood, in preparation for winter sowing.<br />
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27th September<br />
Earache really bad, I haven't slept for two nights - I don’t want to go to the doctor!<br />
I carried on processing fruit and veg; today I made .... HOT Chilli Apple Jelly, Plum Jelly, Georgian Plum Sauce, Bottled Plums.<br />
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Bap asked Brett to work for a few days, Brett agreed to go in on Thursday and Friday.<br />
<br />
28th September<br />
At least I slept last night, ear still painful and deaf (but I didn't go to the doctor).<br />
Today I made water kefir limeade, milk kefir, Brinjal pickle (Brett likes it).<br />
This afternoon Brett suggested we went down (with a bottle of fizzy wine) to introduce ourselves to our new neighbours, we've been meaning to for a while. I looked down at what I was wearing - my favorite dress, but unfortunately with worn holes where my pointy bits are! I searched for something else to wear ..... all I could find was winter clothes and posh frocks, everything else was in the washing. I had to put on the cleanest, dirty, dress I could find; so tomorrow is washing day! Our new neighbours (Margo and Trish) seem very nice.<br />
Brett is working tomorrow.<br />
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29th September<br />
Brett went off to work for 8.00 (not such an early start as mornings are darker).<br />
I did the washing, still feeling crap so that's all I did (well I cooked a chilli too, and fed and watered the animals, and swept and washed the floor, so basically the washing was just my extra task of the day) .....<br />
OMG I've just had a message from Pam - they've accepted an offer on their quinta (she won't tell me how much for), I'm in shock!<br />
<br />
30th September<br />
Brett working.<br />
My ear doesn't hurt so much but I still can't hear.<br />
I invited Di to lunch as Chris has now been working for 6 weeks, which was lovely.<br />
Then when Brett came home we all (Us, C&D, Stuart and Bap) all went to the bar.<br />
So a nice sociable day.<br />
While we were putting away the poultry we think Lily was stung/bitten on her foot, she was very distressed, we gave her a half tablet of antihistamine. It took her half an hour to calm down.<br />
<br />
1st October<br />
And this morning she's 'as right as rain' ...... oooh rain, we could do with some of that!<br />
Less ear pain but still can't hear!<br />
Marc & Mieke and Vince & Lola were supposed to come for dinner, but I postponed until next Tuesday.<br />
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2nd October<br />
We dug up the second lot of sweet potatoes, one weighed over a kilo!<br />
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Our new neighbours came to visit (they brought us a sack of dog biscuits, we gave them eggs). They no longer need the dog biscuits as they are convinced that Paddy/Pig (who Gary left behind) has been shot dead; they heard/saw him and another dog sheep worrying, then lots of shouting and yelping, he came home having been beaten. He went out the next day, two shots were heard, and he hasn't been seen since (that was 3 weeks ago).<br />
We took the dogs for a walk down to the river, most of it was bone dry with a few shallow stagnant pools.<br />
<br />
3rd October<br />
We went into CB town centre, I bought some sticky backed plastic from the craft shop (the stuff from Casas China was useless) to use as a mask for sandblasting. This afternoon I had great fun playing (experimenting) with my sandblaster.<br />
Nick is back from the UK I'm hoping he might be able to solve my kiln - generator problem.<br />
Brett dug out the foundations for the shed he's building to house the hot water boiler ..... once it's built we'll be putting in a proper shower!!!!<br />
This evening we had guests for dinner (Vince & Lola and M&M). I cooked some marinated turkey and sweet potatoes in the gas oven, it took two and a half hours for it all to cook, we kept turning it up but all that did was burn more at the bottom - I hate this oven! Apart from that it was a fun evening, except I was sworn to secrecy on P&M's quinta sale, I was bursting to tell them).<br />
<br />
4th October<br />
Slight hangover ......<br />
I did more sandblasting and leaded up the roundel I'm making, tomorrow I will solder it.<br />
<br />
5th October<br />
Roundel soldered .......<br />
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Brett has been looking at generators so I might be able to do kiln work soon.<br />
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6th October<br />
Roundel cemented (my least favorite job!).<br />
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Well we had a surprise this afternoon ...... <br />
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we didn't realise the ewe was pregnant (she had a lamb 8 months ago, we had been told that they gave birth twice a year).<br />
Watch a really weird film 'Kill List', I don’t get what it was all about - I even looked the plot up on the internet and am still confused!<br />
<br />
7th October<br />
Happy Birthday Jo xxx<br />
Today was fun, I did a load of sandblasting, <br />
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Brett put in a concrete floor for the boiler shed, then we went to the bar.......Sandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00805254542288975401noreply@blogger.com0