Fleasn'all

We are kindly looking after a friends dog for three months,



5 weeks in and we've had a flea infestation. We have spent almost three days washing everything in the house, spraying furniture, floors, washing endless dog bedding, backwards and forwards to the chemist for hideous products, several phone calls to the chemist, some tears and some laughter, finally last night we had a full nights sleep without being bitten....however, I noticed as I have been inspecting all our creatures that the fleas had still not left Bullseye. I have taken very drastic measures, the first day I cut most of his hair off, badly, with some dog grooming scissors,



when I noticed the fleas again today, I went back to town and managed to buy a dog grooming kit in one of the many Chinese shops we have here. I have now groomed him properly. Well sort of, he didn't like it so I had to ply him with constant treats and lots of encouragement, I've left him a pompom tail and some furry boots and his head. Sorry Keeley

and then there were none, back to square one

Sadly the little one has gone...........
I was battling with my conscience because I could see that the mum was not really producing enough milk and he was crying a lot in the last day. I toyed with the idea of bottle feeding him and had to ask myself some fairly serious questions about the viability of it all and then the fact that if he survived, he would reach sexual maturity before leaving home and get his mum and grand-mum up the duff, plus all that handling makes you feel quite attached, so in a way as awful as it's been this week, it is a blessing in disguise. We also have some fairly serious flea problems and having him around was making it difficult to deal with it.

On the upside mum's eye is getting better, thanks to my friend Lisa and her miracle eye oinkment!!!!

timber hitch

it had been on my mind for a while, how the hell was i going to get the huge sections of sawn timber from the roadside, down to the site. initially i needed to move a quantity of 8, 5.6m x 200mm x 225mm (or 8x9"s in old money), for the first stage of the frame. Antonio at the mill offered to try and crane them down there until he saw how far they'd have to go. but i had a plan. run a steel cable from a tree i had left in situ, down to one of the piles of stone outside the over-site. then belay the timbers down with a rope.

prior to that, i still had the unenviable task of getting the timber from the drying rack to the cable the other side of the road. you have to remember that a few weeks ago, when they were first felled, they weighed over the ton each. now they'd been milled and sat in the sun for a few weeks they had had a massive weight loss, and are probably only weighing in at the 700 or 800 pound mark (or 350-400 kg for those of you on new money). still not something you can put on your shoulder and walk with. well i can't anyway. so i devised a trolley, bought some cheap wheels and made up a wooden cart, to roll them up the hill.









finally, unloaded them, hitched them up to the cable with a timber hitch, and shoved off. using the tree trunk to act as a friction brake to belay them down, without having them cannon through the foundations like some giant medieval battering ram.

eggstatic news

Yeah, the last little one survived the night, hurrah. He's doing really well and has started doing the funny side jump thing that they do at this age, he seems very advanced for one week, already wallowing in the mud bath and looking for things to eat? Mum's eye looked a little better today so will carry on with the cold tea treatment, have also dusted them and their houses with some Diatomaceous Earth



Anyway, the other good bit of news is this massive egg....I couldn't believe it when I went in to the chook house to get the eggs this morning...it's a good job eggs are soft as they come out and only harden as they hit air...wouldn't want to pass that one.

...and then there was one

there is a surviving male who is very feisty and very fast, so maybe he'll make it. Lets see what tomorrow brings. Am also collecting some special oinkment from a friend to see if that helps clear up the eye infection, the eye may not have disappeared, I just may have been too distressed and inexperienced to know what I am doing, will update tomorrow

...and then there were two

Rather upsettingly there were two more piglets missing today, again I looked incase they had wondered off, but no. I think that something is coming in to their feild and taking them, snake? fox? dog? bird of prey?

Worse than that, the mother has an eye infection which I have been trying to deal with, I got her to lie down today and I had a good look in her eye only to discover that there is no longer an eye there ??????

I am left with a feeling of resignation and almost despair, understanding intellectually that these things happen and it's all part of the farm cycle and of nature, doesn't change that today I feel a bit quiet and sad.

piggie porn

and then there were four (again)

It would appear that the fifth piglet has died or something........it did look very very small when I spotted it yesterday and was having trouble finding teats, so it could have died, either naturally or been killed. Maybe there was something wrong with it...who knows, maybe it'll turn up again, but I somehow doubt it.

When I arrived at the farm today, I discovered one of the females running around outside,



the other three were busy scrapping in the house, god they are rough with each other.




They all seem to be feeding fine.



I'm leaving them alone for the rest of the day, as I want to constantly be watching them as do the dogs. The dog we are looking after has taken to entering the pig field of his own accord and I don't trust him around the piglets, so am keeping them all away for the time being.

Five full mooners

There has been a lot of controversy about weather the youngest female was pregnant. I knew she was, I had watched her mum have several seasons and her none. Rick only started believing me last week!!!

When I had a look in this morning I could only see four, when I came back at lunch time there were five. I haven't ventured in to the pig house yet to find out what sex they are, didn't want to disturb mum, but thanks to rick's canny design on the pig house, there's a viewing window at the back....

More photos when I can get some

bowl of red

Elderflower cordial

By popular demand I am posting my recipe for cordial here, but it's not really my recipe.

20-30 freshly picked heads of elderflower (stalks but not leaves)
zest of 2 lemons and 1 orange
up to 1.5kg sugar
up to 200ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

Shake off any insects on the flowers, then put all the flowers into a large bowl or preserving pan with the lemon and orange zest,



pour just boiled water over it all just covering everything. Leave for a few hours or overnight.



I remove all the heads etc. by hand and put them in a jelly bag and give them a good squeeze and then put the mush in the compost.



Strain the remaining liquid through the jelly bag. Measure the amount of liquid you have and pour into a saucepan.

For every 500ml of liquid, add 350g sugar and 50ml lemon juice. Heat gently to dissolve sugar. Bring to simmer, skim off scum, let it cool, strain again through jelly bag, bottle on, into clean bottles or if you are lucky enough to have a freezer, freeze it......

I do 2 - 3 times the amount above, so adjust your amounts accordingly. I've made too much today and have made a terrible sticky mess in the kitchen!!!

flower power

I haven't given an update lately on the garden as I've been busy brush-cutting, having fires and getting everything ready, a lot of the plants I've propagated are in and the rest are hardening off, I'll post more about them when they look a little bit happier. There is a riot of colour everywhere, I am particularly chuffed with my over-wintered self seeded sweet peas and my sweet williams (which are my favourite cut flower), but I won't be cutting them this year as they are too beautiful where they are. I used to grow tonnes of flowers in the UK to have around the house, here I don't feel the need. We are surrounded by beauty and somehow I don't need that cheering up that cut flowers provide in an otherwise dreary life.

I do pilfer the occasional wild flower for the house and this week I was overtaken with the desire to have red roses in my bedroom, don't tell anyone but I nicked them!!!!

whine

We made litres and litres of grape juice last year and on Rick's insistence some wine, which incidentally I wanted nothing to do with, convinced that a) we would need loads of special equipment which we don't have and b) it would be disgusting.

I stand corrected, it's ready, it's not bad we have about 30 litres of the stuff