14th April
Torrential rain .......
Brilliant ...... I've been feeling crap for a couple of weeks; stressed, achy joints and muscles and very tired. Last week I got, what I thought were, bites on my scalp (raised, itchy, bumps in my hair); then I got a very painful lump a bit lower down and yesterday I started with the sudden jabbing pain (like electric shocks) in the area ...... a quick 'google' and I've diagnosed myself - some kind of virus, possibly Cranial Shingles considering my Bell's Palsy history; I'm just hoping it doesn't trigger a BP attack - I'm really depressed.
Brett took C&D and Alfie into CB (to the vet) this afternoon; I stayed at home,in front of the fire.
C&D gave me a big bag of lemons, so I made some lemon curd.
This evening: our second attempt at Halloumi; yesterday's wasn't squeaky - and according to Andrew (who is Greek), if it doesn't squeak it's not Halloumi....... OK our curds are too soft (it could be because we freeze the milk or the nature of our goat milk) so now we have to source Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) which will firm up the curds.
Soft curds
The Ricotta worked
15th April
Wet ......
Lunch at A&K's and dinner as C&D's, which should have been a nice relaxing social day; but as I'm still feeling rough I just wanted to be at home!
A&K gave us a bag of 'truffles'; I don't know their proper name, they grow under the soil like real truffles. They've given us enough to eat and plant.
First strawberries (from the polytunnel) of the year picked today - they tasted a bit 'earthy' (disappointing).
16th April
Wet ......
At least I had a genuine excuse for not going to class today! We had to go into Penamacor to buy animal food and a few bits from the supermarket; I elected to stay in the car - Pam, Lou and Janet turned up at mini-P while Brett was shopping, so came to say "hello" to me. I said I felt 'crap' and (no nonsense Northern) Janet says "yes, you look crap"!
Brett had to take C&D and Alfie back into CB (to the vet) this afternoon; I stayed at home and watched 'Joy' (recommended by Pam).
17th April
Mark texted last night to say he was visiting today. As I'm still feeling bleugh Brett prepared lunch, I didn't even bother to tidy up (it was only Mark!); then he turns up with Amelia (his Portuguese friend) - great, the house was a tip!!!
Amelie brought us a present - two ducklings (about 3 weeks old, very cute), apparently they are called Leo and Mona. We put them in with the chicks; they were fine but the chicks freaked out - they'll have sorted themselves by morning.
To add insult to injury, today I got electrocuted! I was stoking the boar, he accidentally touch the electric fence which earthed down through my right leg - it bloody well hurt! And now, somehow, I have a very sore buttock and hamstring ......
18th April
A bit of sun this morning, but the ground is far too wet to do any gardening (I'm not up to it anyway, but my head is feeling a bit better).
The ducklings have settled in nicely with the chicks.
I was mortified by the state of our house yesterday, so today was the start of Spring Cleaning - my goodness it's slow progress when you're not feeling up to parr.
Brett did some building work while he could; there's more rain forecast this week.
19th April
It rained hard all night and was still raining this morning.
On a positive note: our pea and bean seeds have started coming through (I was worried that they might have rotted) and I'm feeling a lot better today.
But then it continued to rain all day, so now the peas and beans are under water - the well is fuller than ground height, the water is gushing out of the hole the pipe goes through, along the furrows, creating a 'lake' in the corner, where the peas and beans are planted!
The goose under the crate, who has been sitting for eleven days, has been flooded out; she was gamely trying to sit on her nest, which was submerged under several inches of water - we had to force her off and take away the eggs.
20th April
Dry but dull, for most of the day, then it started raining again late afternoon and most of the night.
We haven't had that much milk from the goats lately (typical just as we're getting into cheese making!); we got less than 1/2L from Georgia today. The problem is all the wet weather; the goats spend the day sheltering and the kids spend the day drinking OUR MILK!!!
21st April
Dull, damp, slightly drizzly ....
Hooray, confirmation of dates from Debbie & Dave - they're visiting in June. And Joyce, Sarah & James arrive four weeks from today.
The goats don't want to be put away overnight (they dig in their heels and pull back as we lead them), so we left them in the field tonight.
22nd April
A bit of dampness first thing, then blue skies and some sunshine!
Still too wet to go on the vegetable garden, but I planted out some herbs in the herb garden.
Brett strimmered and mowed (with the tractor!) the verges along the track.
Oh dear we missed our Amazon Spain delivery (thermometer) today - the email informing us (in Spanish) said we need to telephone the courier (Spanish) - neither of us want to do it!
23rd April
The sun was out today ........
No milk from the goats this morning; we're considering shutting the nannies in the shed over night, leaving the kids in the field - they should be weaned at about this age.
Hooray our Amazon Spain order came this morning with BOTH thermometers (so we don't have to phone the couriers!). I went to order some Calcium Carbonate from Amazon Spain 2.65€ for 500g, which I thought was nice and cheap, but 26€ postage!!!!!!!!!!! So I didn't order it .....
As I can't work in the vegetable garden yet (it's still boggy) I spent the day in my herb garden; at the moment it's full of mint and rocket - I've got to steel myself to get rid of lots of it ......
24th April
Sunny start to the day ......
Brett went straight out to carry on blocking - he's 17 blocks at the back (about 3.5m), it looks very high.
I've offered my spearmint on Facebook (free, for collection) and I dried a load in the dehydrator; (my first attempt at using it), I put some carrots in one tray to make carrot crisps.
After three hours one bucket of fresh mint became two Kilner jar (1L jars) of dried mint. The carrot crisps took four hours ...... they don't taste very much like crisps, Brett says they're like orange cardboard!
25th April
Another sunny day; it looks like this could be the start of summer (24.5 in the shade).
The garden is still rather wet but I managed to do some weeding and pick two buckets of fava beans.
Brett carried on with the building.
OMG we've just bought another four goats!!!!!! I answered an advert (in a dull moment) last week and the guy got back to us today. They're an eight year old nanny with her two, month old kids , (one male, one female) and an eighteen month female in milk. They are Erzgebirge, an old German breed kept for milking. They are being delivered on Wednesday.
26th April
Sun, sun, sun .........
First thing (well 10.00 a.m.) we took 3/4L of milk from Georgia (there was masses left for her kid) and 1/4L from Hazel (funnily she only needed it taking from one side), so a whole 1L - hopefully we won't need to milk this evening. Georgia milked much quicker than normal, as we were milking both sides; Hazel always milks fast, once she starts she gushes!
I need to keep reminding myself that I used to have to hand-wash and hand-wring all my washing (including sheets and duvet covers), so wash days now are not a chore - I have a twin tub, it's a luxury!
Brett carried on blocking.
Over the door is full height for the front, the back goes up another metre
I love my windows .....
I gave away four carrier bags of spearmint (with roots) today; there's still an awful lot left!
I spent the afternoon in the polytunnel (well most of the time I was outside the door it was far too hot for more than a couple of minutes in there) sowing legumes.
27th April
A bit dull today.
Wow 1L off Georgia and 3/8L from Hazel (again one side).
The guy delivering the goats was running late so we nipped into the supermarket to get some food. Got to the checkout and all the lights went out - a power cut; stood around for ages waiting for the electricity to come back as nothing was working without it (not even the doors!) and of course there was no way we could be checked out manually.
Our goats arrived; they are very placid, well they were with us, but once we put them in the field with the rest of our flock it was another story - the one with horns ran at our sheep, so they gave her a wide birth, and reared up and butted our goats, who were more inquisitive. We left them to sort themselves out.
The new goats are the dark brown ones
The garden was drier today so I sowed (using our seeder) several rows of onions and carrots.
This evening the new goats came into feed with the rest of the flock; the horned nanny had a trough to herself - they are very wary of her.
28th April
Today I made hay while the sun shone;
I had to mow down a field full of wild flowers
(lavender, purple viper bugless, field marigold, yellow lupin, blue lupin, chickling vetch (purple/red, red, white), scarlet pimpernel, blue pimpernel, chickweed, wild rocket, ramping fumatory (I just love the name!), cranesbill, flycatcher, mayweed, chamomile, bladder campion, queen Anne's lace, purple toadflax, orchid, Mediterranean linseed, tassle hyacinth - and that's just the ones I know the names of!).
The new goats have made themselves at home very quickly; they come in to eat with the rest of the flock and will eat out of our hands.
29th April
I finished mowing the field this morning.
Brett blocked.
This evening we started raking the cut grass into lines - it was hard physical work!
30th April
Another lovely sunny day and I was up early as Lola and I were going to Diane's for the day, to make beauty products. I came home with a cream for my feet (they crack in the summer) and a creamy body mousse, plus all kinds of other goodies that Diane generously gave me - we had a fabulous day.
Meantime Brett was making hay rakes (he kindly made one for me too!); so when I got home I had to help rake the hay into rows (admittedly he had done most of it while I was out).
It was getting dark as we finished!
1st May
Sun for the next three days, then on Wednesday we get a rainy period - so lots to do ....... turn the hay and gather it in, plant out tomatoes, pepper, aubergine, tomatillos etc. Setting up the tomato cages, and the difficult bit - digging the irrigation channels (the ground is already hard). I also want to make a climbing bean support from rebar - I would like an arch but the rebar is already bent into a V (to fit it on the lorry).
As usual I didn't get half of what I planned done, but it was still a shattering day - we rewarded ourselves with a visit to Bar do Club, with Chris & Di (first of the year).
2nd May
Off to Fundao to buy plant plugs (tomatoes, aubergine and peppers) and some osteospernum then to CB to pick up our repaired rotorvator - unfortunately the English speaking guy wasn't there so I couldn't ask for the complaint's book; our rotorvator was bought 4 months ago, with a 2 year guarantee, but the cable that broke wasn't covered, so they charged us 38€ for a new cable (probably cost less than 5€) and kept the machine for 7 weeks!!!! I'm so cross, but there's nothing I can do about it.
I'm exhausted after planting all the plugs and turning the hay - sitting down waiting for a well earned beer!
3rd May
Bloody hell it was hot today 30+ in the shade and we had to get the hay in. It took most of the day, we are shattered, but we have a good sized hayrack.
And the field looks good.
Looking forward to lots of well earned beers, but first I have to make something to take to book club tomorrow - I made fudge .......,
4th May
I woke up with a stonking headache, I think it was all the sun yesterday (no, not the beers!); so I didn't get to book club - which is just as well as we didn't finish milking until nearly 11.00 and then I had all the sterilising to do (this milking lark takes lots of time).
We went to the planning department and got a 90 day extension for our build, then we went to Finances to ask why we hadn't had our land tax bill (we've had one for the last 3 years), apparently if you have a yearly income of less than 15000€ you are exempt this year.
We had to milk Georgia on one side this evening, which means we had our best ever milk yield today of about 1.75L.
5th May
And today it's raining .........
An enforced day off, just pottering around the house.
A selection of our wild flowers ........
Purple Viper's Bugless and Field Marigold
Tassle Hyacinth
Chickling Vetch
Scarlet Pimpernel and Blue Pimpernel
Mediterranean Linseed
Purple Toadflax
