Wednesday 30 September 2015

Buzz buzz etc

Sorry to have been absent, so much going on just now.
It has been a good summer for the ducks, seven ducklings safely raised. We now have 14 ducks. Two are definitely Drakes but it is looking like all the ducklings are girls. Here's hoping!
On the chicken front, no chicks this year for the first time and we lost one hen. So 11 hens and 3 cockerels. Had a bit of a lean time with eggs but found a couple were laying in the garden. That meant I acquired a mountain. All good though and I used them all. The geese were too young this year but hope next year to have some goslings.
We recently went to see our bee keeping mentor and had a lovely afternoon of instruction. We now know where we are going! We have a nuke booked for next spring that will have a queen to start us off. It will cost us €150! We are going to build a platform in a barn that has a hay window on the east facing side. Perfect for bees. The hive will be sited in the window opening and we will fill the gaps around it leaving a 'door' for them. This will mean the bees will fly above any people. We have to visit the tax office to get our bee keepers number and become registered. Once we are set up we will be visited by the bee inspector from time to time. We have to keep daily records of the temperature inside and outside the hive that the inspector will want to see. The next thing we must do is unpack our hive and put it together.
Next week we are having a day learning how to milk goats and make goats cheese. I am hoping this will make P agree to have a few goats.
I know that to be truly self sufficient I have to get my head around eating our stock. That is very big for me.
Daughter arrives here on 17th October with her husband and dog to start a new life with us. I am so pleased about this.
Also we decided to sell our English house and after just four days it is sold! In 6-8 weeks we will pay off our mortgage and have enough money in the pot to finish the renovations. Happy days!
We still have so much to do but are gradually getting to where we want to be.
Next year I will start on opening our well and using grey water. That is a big project.

Friday 11 September 2015

The wait continues

So here we are six weeks after my daughter should have exchanged contracts on her flat and it still hasn't happened. The buyers solicitor has caused problems throughout. She has failed to communicate  with anyone and has been very slow with each stage. If it does not happen by Monday lunchtime daughter cannot complete until 5 th October. This gives us more time to spend getting the cave ready but is very stressful!
Today we took big Bruno for his vaccinations. Had to take Frank too as he is unhappy being left in the house alone. Bruno has no fear of the vet and was very good. He weighed in at 41kgs! After the vet we took them for a good woodland walk which we all enjoyed.
Also today I have deleted all but one of the games I played on my iPad. I am tired of wasting time on them! It has meant this evening I have finished the crochet throw for the Gite. Well the crochet bit anyway. I now have to sew in all the ends then do the border. The throw is red and white and I am going to sew a red and white gingham frill around the edges. I have several other projects to finish that I am going to work through.
My hand reared ducklings are now outside. Yesterday I put them in the duck garden where they enjoyed a swim in the pond. It took two of us to get them into the house last night. They tumbled out of the house with the others when I opened the door this morning. They had no problem finding the feeder and although they stayed together they seem happy. This evening I was able to get them into the house on my own. Hopefully this means they are now happy being ducks!
We are back on track with eggs too although silly hen is still laying hers on top of the wall. Today the egg rolled off and broke! I am getting three eggs a day though as well as one or two duck eggs. It is good to be able to supply my younger daughter and two friends again.

Monday 7 September 2015

Another new venture and yes it is green

tomorrow afternoon I will collect my first organic veg box direct from a farmer. I sign a contract for a year agreeing to buy a box every week. The farmer has just been certified organic and is fairly new. At the moment he just grows veg but is looking at getting livestock soon. I hope to convince him to keep pigs outdoors as all pork comes from intensively farmed, indoor pigs. I do not agree with the way they are kept so cannot buy pork. Not that I eat it but OH and visitors do!
I have known about this scheme for some time but have not had one local to me until now. It will certainly test my French!
I have been having fun with my chickens. Egg production had really dropped off and I could not understand it. Also almost daily I was finding a broken egg, sometimes two in the barn. First I found 13 eggs in a pile in the garden. Then I saw two chickens up on the wall and one was sitting. I shifted them both off and found six eggs up on the top of the wall! The chickens were knocking the eggs off the ledge when going to lay the next one! I now have a big bowl of eggs! I plan to make cakes for the freezer so that I can check each egg. Now I know what is happening the egg supply will be good again! The ducks are kindly leaving one or two eggs in the duck house each morning. That will stop soon though as they do not lay over winter.
I need to get the winter cabbage and onions in soon. I would also like to get some kale in. Not really sure what else I plant now so need to do a bit of research.
I have a young lad lined up to help in the garden. He needs to earn money to pay his scooter insurance which he now rides to school. They are allowed to ride scooters at 14 here! I plan to get him sorting out my half built greenhouse as I want to start veg off in it next year. I want to get to the point where my organic box and what I grow keep us going all year. I no longer want to buy from supermarkets.