And still more babies ....... .

14th April
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.
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!!!!
We had a lovely evening with T&D, who still have the calf (hopefully his owner will be located soon).

15th April
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).
OUR money is sitting there, in our account, but we're only allowed to withdraw 250€ per day! Makes me want to spit .....
The gardening (weeding, planting, sowing and watering) and milking are taking up a big chunk of our day.
Started watching a very strange film, Elle.

16th April
Xxx
Happy Easter ........
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).
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).
Finished watching a very strange film, Elle!

17th April
Hot!
I spent most of the night awake with earache .....
So much milk ...........

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.
Mesophillic starter added to 5 litres of milk and left to clabber (fabulous word!) for 24 hours.
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!

18th April
Off to CB for Brett's dental appointment.
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.
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!

19th April
Lightening and rain overnight. Today is cooler and rather windy.
Brett made a goat milking table.

I played in my studio, preparing exciting experimental stuff for a firing.
Our drum mower arrived today.
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!).
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).

20th April
I remembered to feed the dogs!
Lucy still had to be lifted onto the milking table; but the milking itself was a 'one man' job.
We had an impromptu morning at Vince & Lola's (returning their plough), which was nice.
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' ......
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!
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!).

21st April
Brett has thwarted the goat kids; he's put an electric fence around the solar panels/old water tank.
Both nanny goats now get onto the milking table - clever animals.

Jelisa

Lucy

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.
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.
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).

22nd April
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!).

Today we learnt that ricotta means re-cooked (like panna cotta means cooked cream), therefore cotta means cooked in Italian.

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.

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!

What a left down; we watched the finale of Broadchurch.

23rd April

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???).

The cheese was unwrapped and salted, it now needs to mature for a couple of weeks.

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!

Kiln firing ........
Painted another gate - three to go .....

24th April
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.

Arsenic & Old Lace featuring Ghost Hare Triskelion

Sardines waiting to go into a panel

This afternoon I painted two gates - one to go!

25th April
Freedom Day = Public Holiday .......
Poo, now I have earache in my other ear (Brett thinks the infection traveled from ear to ear via my brain!).
The garden is starting to look good except .... we had rain the other night so the weeds have taken off with a vengeance!
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????

26th April
Brett dug and filled the footings for the bathroom (lots of smiley faces!).
I had made Halloumi and Ricotta (it takes a good four hours).

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.

27th April

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).

Stuffed a whole load more sausages - I even learnt how to tie them like a butcher (from youtube!).

Sharon was dripping this evening and being very vocal - I think she's in labor, Brett thinks she's on heat .......

28th April
Another full on Smallholding day ......
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).
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).
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.
The afternoon was butchering and freezing the meat.
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.
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!).

29th April
A well deserved day off, unfortunately it's raining!
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).

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!
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!).

30th April
Wet, cold and windy ........
Didn't do much.

1st May
Cheese making is coming around too often! It takes a good part of a day. I made another wheel of 'Cheddar'.
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!
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!!!!
I advertised our goat kids for sale on Facebook this afternoon ...... MY ADVERT (I tried to make it catchy):

FOR SALE: Goat Kids
Do you have large, unmanageable, areas of scrubby grassland?
Do you spend hours strimmering?
Would you like, FRESH, milk?
Would you like to make your own cheese?
~
If you answer "yes" to one or more of the questions above YOU NEED GOATS!!!
~
2 x female kids, born January 2017
Very friendly
Both their mothers are good milkers
50€ each
~
3 x male (castrated) kids, born March 2017 (ready to go beginning of June)
Very friendly and playful - will make good pets
40€ each
...
I had sold the two females by this evening!

2nd May
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"!!!!!
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!

3rd May
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!).
We had a fablous evening and drank loads of Jerapiga!

4th May
Chaos at the milking station.
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.
There was lots of head butting, rearing, pushing and shoving between the new group and Jelisa, Lucy and the male kids.
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.

It is her kid stealing her food!

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?).
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.

5th May
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.
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).
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!).
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.

6th May
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 ........

New method of heating the milk slowly (1 degree per 5 minutes)

Brett planted our Princess trees.

7th May
I spent the day in the studio (I need to complete Rebecca & Paul's wedding present before they arrive in 10 days time!!!!).
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).
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.

8th May
It's gone hot again .......
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.

This evening we had to take the dogs to the vet, for their annual vaccinations - that was fun!!!!

BLOODY MILK ......,,

28th March
I'm made a clock for my studio (I'm too tight to buy one!).

This afternoon we went round to Judith's for afternoon tea; she has a lovely big quinta with mowed lawns and flower beds.

29th March
Brett and I had a gardening day. I sowed lots of seeds and excavated channels, for watering, in the polytunnel.

Brett cut grass (tractor) and rotavated (rotavator, until it broke (again), then tractor).

30th March
I hate housework!!! I tidied, swept, dusted and washed the floor this morning - by this afternoon the floor needed doing again (I didn't!!!).
Pam, Nicky (her house buyer) and Taliss (Nicky's daughter) came round this afternoon - they exchange contracts tomorrow.
Brett finished the supports for the vines,

then plough the vegetable garden field

- looks good.
This evening we went for our 'last supper' with P&M at O Fontanha (skewer restaurant) - we might never see them again!

31st March
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.

I forgot to take a photo after it had been completed!

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).

1st April
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.
We also bought paint for the remaining gates - so that's me sorted for next week!
I heard the first bee eater today (definitely summer!).
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'.

2nd April
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.

3rd April
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!
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 ......

4th April
Happy Birthday Alex xxx
Our milking machine was dispatched today.
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.
The muscovy ducklings have started hatching ......
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.

5th April
The mother ducks (yes there's two sitting on the same nest) are sitting tight, so far I've managed to count five ducklings.
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.
Poor old Diane & Thomas are struggling with their new cow, she not used to being milked and she's rather feisty ........
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.
We put her back in the shed at midnight (it was the best way to keep her warm).

6th April
And this morning we couldn't tell which was the drowned chick!!!! They all rushed out saying they were starving. Feeling good ........
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)
Brett prepared the ground ready for vegetable plugs and seeds. I cooked as Wendy & Kevin are coming to lunch tomorrow.
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.

7th April
Twelve ducklings came out of the shed this morning!
Wendy & Kevin came to lunch today (chilled pumpkin soup. Focaccia, sundries tomato jam and rocket tart, our dried ham (ours)

with melon, coleslaw and mixed salad).
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.

8th April
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).
There were only eleven ducklings when we got home. We searched and searched but couldn't find the twelfth.
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!
This evening we castrated our three male kids; a really horrible job, we feel bad, but it means they'll have longer lives.

9th April
Our goat kids aren't happy .........
We feel mean!
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!
We had afternoon tea at Claire & Phil's, and came back with .... Lemons!
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.

10th April
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.
We went to Fundao market today for vegetable plugs: brocolli, cabbage, piri piri, capsicum, onions, cauliflower (white and Romanesque), tomatoes and Brussels sprouts......
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).
I made Halloumi and Ricotta; tomorrow I might make ice cream.
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.

11th April
It was over 30C on the decking today ......
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
 have root canal work (took out the nerve).
We managed to get all the plugs planted today; the tomatoes are looking rather limp/dead!
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.

12th April
30+C in the shade ..........
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).
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!
Lots of vegetable gardening today.
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)......

13th April
30+C ........
One of the duckling was smothered overnight; then there were nine!
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.
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!

AND NOW LAMBS .......

6th March
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).
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.
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!).

Satan & her kid!

I made chocolate fridge cake, as Claire and Judith are coming to afternoon tea tomorrow.

7th March
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!
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!.
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.

8th March
Today is warm .....
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.
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).

9th March
27C in the shade (and we're not used to it!). Today I saw the first swallows of the summer .......
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.
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).
Brett finished the fencing.

10th March
Another hot day ...
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.

Quite a complicated procedure, using a paper doily as a stencil

I think I used too much wire wool!

Pam came round to do some felting, I prepared more glass for fusing - fab day.

11th March
Not so warm today, the sun was hiding .......
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.

12th March
A cooler day and very windy .....
I did another kiln firing today; I've made a few small pieces (suncatchers etc) that might sell quite well in Carly's shop.
This evening we're out at Chris & Di's with P&M (who leave at the end of the month).

13th March
Still cool and windy (I'm back to wearing a heavy jumper).
Of course we had a late night last night! It was fun, we had a good old gossip and set the world to rights.
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:

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.
I spent another day in my studio preparing glass for firing - I LOVE my studio!!!
Brett started making field gates for our newly fenced paddocks - then I'll have to paint them.
We lit the fire again this evening .....

14th March
The wind has dropped.
Brett carried on with his gates. I did a kiln firing and prepared more glass for firing.
This evening I spotted a snake, a white snake, probably an albino ladder snake.

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!

15th March
Another dish (arsenic & old lace range) that I'm really happy with, but the small pieces still need hotter/longer.
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.

16th March
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.
Mark brought our snake back and confirmed that it is an albino ladder snake; it's back living in the chicken run.

17th March
RIP Uncle Bill.
Happy St Patrick's Day ......
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!
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 .......

18th March
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):
1/3 cup turmeric
1 tbspn cinnamon
2 tbspns honey
1 tbspn coconut oil
Good twist of black pepper
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!).
I carried on painting gates (martyr that I am), whilst Brett hung gates - his wonky one looks good.

Gate to vegetable garden (sheep are in veg garden!)

Wonky gate, on a slope

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.
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.

19th March
Hot ......
We heard the first cuckoo this morning ......
I'm so bored with painting gates!!!! Only another five to go .........
This afternoon I spent a sweaty two hours in the polytunnel, weeding - the weeds grow so fast compared to my vegetables!!!
The sow is 'bagging up' and building a nest - and we just thought she was fat!

20th March
Spring has Sprung ......
One of last year's lambs gave birth overnight (of course we didn't realise she was pregnant).
A trip in to CB to buy more paint for the gates - and they didn't have any in store.
This afternoon we started pruning our grapes - we want the place to look tidy and cared for.
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).
The sow started giving birth this evening; she had had one, Tamworth coloured one, by midnight.

21st March
By 2.00 she'd given birth to a black one and that was it ...... two!!!!!
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.
We pruned more vines today and are thinking of buying more plants, I would like some seedless grapes so I can make sultanas.

22nd March
Well we weren't expecting that ..... both piglets were dead this morning, the sow had crushed them in the night!
We had a trip to Vince & Lola's today, to borrow their plough attachment for the tractor.
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!
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!).
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 ......

23rd March
Cold and showery .......
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!!!!

Look at this mess ......

I spent the day in my cold studio.

24th March
There was ice on the animal's water this morning.
Smallholding never seems to go to plan, today it was Thomas & Diane's turn; I've made up some new smallholding proverbs .........
~ don't count your piglets before they're weaned.
~ don't count your bacon before it's killed.
You have to be in the know to understand them!
I did a firing this afternoon, looking forward to the morning .......

25th March
Frigid this morning .....
I'm very pleased with my new range of dishes 'Sardines'.

The 'sucked in' edge is caused by a hot spot in my kiln (overfired).

Stove lit early, I made lemon curd.
Then we had heavy hail.
Followed by thunder & lightening.
More hail.
And then a thunderstorm right overhead .......
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).
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!
We actually had a good evening at bar do clube!

26th March
Happy Mothering Sunday!
Beastly weather today, cold and wet ......
I had a lovely long phone call from William this morning.
We had a very lazy Sunday (fire lit early and watched films).

27th March
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 .........

OVER RUN WITH KIDS .........

12th February
It would have been my father's birthday today .....
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.
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!).
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.

13th February
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.

Boxing Hares

Running Hare

Winter Tree

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.
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).

Greenman

Sweet potatoes were put into water to chit; we want to grow enough to feed to the animals this year.

14th February
Happy Valentine to me .........
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.

Hare Triskelion Roundel 

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.

15th February
I leaded up three more panels,  so feeling pleased with myself.
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.
Brett spent the day clearing the land where he's going to fence next(he's reclaimed about 10' of ground around the perimeter).

16th February
And the sun is out!!! Better weather is forecast for the next few days.
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.
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).
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).
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'.

17th February
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).
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.
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 .......

18th February
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?????


19th February
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.
01.00 R 500 (1 hour: raise temp to 500C)
00.01 R 850 (?: raise, asap, to 850C)
00.10 H 850 (10 min: hold temp at 850C)
00.01 C 560 (?: cool, asap, to 560C)
If I could switch off here that would save me lots of time!!!!! But ......
Annealing: (this is the bit that takes the time!)
00.17 H 560 (17 mins: hold at 560C)
00.34 C 540 (34 mins: cool to 540C)
00.17 H 540 (17 mins: hold at 540C)
00.34 C 520 (34 mins: cool to 520C)
00.17 H 520 (17 mins: hold at 520C)
End (generator can be switched off).
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.
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.
Brett has started putting in his fence posts, it really changes the look of the Quinta.

20th February
Happy Birthday Lily (dog!), we've had her three years today.
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)

(2) I made some textured glass by slumping it over cut out pieces of fiber paper (worked nicely)

(3) the Greenman mould was very disappointing, hardly any definition despite obvious signs of overfiring (spiky edges).

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!

21st February
A frosty start to the day.
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.

22nd February
Every day I look at my herb garden and think "I must weed that" - today I started (it's going to take a while!).
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).
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?
This evening we're off to dine with Alex & Karina.

23rd February
Lily is fine this morning, so I think it WAS stinging nettles.
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.

24th February
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!

24th February
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!


26th February
Rather damp and chilly today ......
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.
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.

27th February
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.
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!
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!

Literally 15 minutes old!

We increased our animals by 21 today!

28th February
It's March tomorrow!
Both Jelisa's kids are male - shame.

Clean and dry after a night in the shed. 

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'!

1st March
Happy St David's Day!
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!
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 ........
Ok the quinta is dog proof, Brett fenced the last gap today - this should mean I don't have to worry about Looby anymore.
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.

2nd March
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!!!!).
As we use the generator whilst we have the craft meeting I prepared glass for a long firing.
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.

3rd March
Rainy and cold.
Paper making was fun, if a bit messy.

My firing wasn't a great success, but lessons were learnt and I spent the day cutting glass for my next experiments.

This stuck to mould!

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!

4th March
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!).
Brett shut the sheep and goats on the vegetable garden - so they spent all day huddled next to the gate!!!

5th March
Ok so they have grazed some of the vegetable garden - all my Swiss chard, bloody typical.
Lunch was fun; Nicky & Rich always make us laugh.
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).

6th March
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).

FIRING MY KILN at last .......

19th January
Brett continued pruning the olive trees, with the help of the goats and kids!
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;

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.

20th January
Still cold and DRY. The lack of rain, since before Christmas, has resulted in quite a few wildfires in Portugal, which is worrying.
Another day of pruning and cleaning wool.

21st January
My hip is still giving me problems, bloody annoying. I took it easy today in an effort to give it some rest.

22nd January
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).
A 5kgs leg of mutton is marinating in red wine, herbs and spices

- we've invited Alex, Karina, Alex's dad (Alex), Thomas and Diane for a roast tomorrow evening.
Brett started listing all the things we now do towards being smallholders (it makes us feel positive/smug!) .....
*Being almost self sufficient in lots of food and drink
Meat: pork, mutton, chicken, duck and soon goat
Preserving: Canning, drying and salting meat, fruit and vegetables (a smokehouse is in the pipeline), tomato products (passata, sun dried, sundried paste)
Eggs
Goat milk
Cheese
Olive oil
Olives
Wine
Sweet potatoes
Squash
Seasonal vegetables and fruit
*Fire wood (heating)
*Wool products: spinning and hopefully soon weaving and knitting and we want to learn to tan
*Making my own clothes: sewing, knitting
*Electricity (solar)
*Water (from our wells)
*
There is still lots more that we want to do like growing food for our animals.


23rd January
Brett is making a great job of the trees (and we'll have lots of wood next year).
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 ......

24th January
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.
On the down side there was an awful lot of greasy washing up!!!
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!).
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.

25th January
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.

26th January
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!
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.
And we're back to living in a cave!

27th January
It was a horrible wet night, but at least our animals were all dry.
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).

28th January
Woke up to fog and frozen animal water - miserable day.
I carded and spun lots of wool (I'm definitely improving, though it's slower than I would like!).
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.

29th January
We had a brilliant evening and the food ...... well it was a banquet! We had four courses:
(1) Fried Chinese dumplings with dipping sauces, barbecued ribs, prawn crackers.
(2) Peking duck with pancakes, and a pork and garlic dish (Alex).
(3) Whole baked fish (grouper) and rice.
(4) Lemon cheesecake (mine) and profiteroles (Karina).
The Chinese dumplings were my favorite, I need to make them!
There was so much food, I was full by the second course, and it was all delicious.
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).

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!

30th January
Last night was the first time for several weeks that I haven't needed a hot water bottle.
We moved the sheep from Lavender Paddock to the Goose Field - they're so good and easy to move!
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!

31st
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 .......
Even more exciting, Henry is planning a road trip to visit us (happy days!).

1st February
Happy Birthday Stephanie! XXXXX
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.

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!

2nd February
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.

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.
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.

3rd February
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.
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).
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.

4th February
Happy Birthday Joyce xxx
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.
Another crappy day. I worked on my glass painting.
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?

5th February
And after all that, today I can hardly walk!!! My knees are sore and stiff (but I still maintain it wasn't my fault).
I'm very happy with yesterday's firing; today I got to paint detail (the fun bit) - my projects are coming together nicely.
Brett spent his time rotorvating the polytunnel - time to get planting!

6th February
Happy Birthday Alexandra! XXX
I sowed beans, peas, salad stuff and courgettes in the polytunnel today - feeling virtuous!!!
My knees are improving, no lasting damage done.

7th February
I can nearly walk without limping (though stairs/styles are a challenge).
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!
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.

8th February
I'm preparing as much glass as possible, to go in the kiln; as several days of rain are forecast from the weekend onwards.
Brett is still pruning olive trees, we have a good supply of wood for next winter.
I made lemon drizzle cake and flapjack as Judith is coming for afternoon tea tomorrow (postponed until Friday).

9th February
Happy Birthday Mark.
I continued to glass paint, whilst Brett pruned.
This afternoon we popped round to P&M's to give Mark his birthday present - homecured, freerange bacon!!!

10th February
A quick dash into CB to buy some bits (unfortunately still unable to find POLs or Ross Cobb chicks).
This afternoon Judith came round - we had a good old natter.
This evening it snowed!!!! (First time since we've been here).

11th February
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).
I spent the day in my studio glass painting - I'm having such fun, I have a couple of pieces ready to lead.
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.
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!