February 8 2017
It is one of those
really hot days today. The house
has stayed a respectable 24 degrees but I have had to venture outside to water
the vegetable garden several times.
We had lots of ripe tomatoes in the fridge so I stewed them up with
onions garlic and herbs and then put them in pots in the freezer to be used for
winter soups and sauces. I
also picked another batch of blackberries and froze them ready to be stewed with
apples once we get some. It is
great having a large freezer once again and having enough storage room to
preserve everything .
Al and Pip are
enjoying their new home by the sea, which is probably the perfect place to be
in this weather. I miss being able
to drive over and visit them but Al does come up and see us most weeks. We are feeling very happy because
we have discovered that we get a part pension from the UK. It is not means tested like the pension
here, so everyone gets something.
It is not huge but enough to make quite a difference. Edd plans to travel this winter
to visit friends and relatives.
February 5 2017
There is so much we
need to do before winter.
Last week we got some help and started to cut firewood from the dead
trees that threatened to collapse on the fence between the gully and us. Some of them were very large but
already they have started to rot internally and had reached a dangerous
stage. Even our local expert tree
man had difficulty getting them to fall right.
Edd had pumped all the
water from the new tank by the dairy but there was a thick sludge of algae left
in the tank that had to be cleaned out.
I used ladders to get into the base of the tank and brushed and scooped
the mess into buckets. This was a
very messy job and I ended up soaked and splashed with so much black gloop that
I had to strip off all my clothing and have a shower! Fortunately Ben and his
brother helped Edd on the following day and made a bucket chain that
effectively moved the mess into the nearest paddock. We now have to clean and
repair the tank before the new roof goes on. Edd has brought the corrugated iron to make the roof so that
bit is ready.
The new freezer is now
on and full of goats meat. We had
a young buck who developed a bad hernia so he went to the butcher before he got
into any pain. I have harvested lots of beans and the garlic but now the
tomatoes need to be possessed ready for freezing. We are eating lots of fresh
tomatoes and they are really tasty this year. The cucumber crop has failed.
These last few weeks of heat and no rain came at exactly the wrong time for
them. I have been watering the
vegetables twice a day but everything has still been struggling.
Luckily it rained
today so the plants are looking a lot happier. The two olive trees that we got
from the back of Bo’s restaurant are hovering between life and death. I water them every day and count the
green leaves. The first tree only has seven but this number has stayed
stable. I am not sure if this is
good or bad but whilst there is life there is hope. My olives still have fruit on them and the chestnut trees
are covered with small green prickly balls, but I am not sure if they are
getting enough water to develop them into nuts.
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