The first farm animals arrive

Three chickens have moved into the chick-mobil.

5 months old, they are  already averaging 1.5 eggs per day, which is more than enough for us. 

The names, so far, are, left to right:

Dora (the explorer), Snowy, and (shrinking) Violet.

They are amazingly friendly, always coming over to say hello.

Brown dog is entranced by them and would happily spend hours watching. It wasn't wasted effort either, when she saw where I placed an egg the other day while I filled the water. The egg quickly disappeared. I guess you only make that mistake once.

Breakfast, 50% home produce. Yum.

Happy Easter

The peace and quiet of the countryside

The road through our village has intermittent traffic.

There are no major flight paths going over our valley.

Our village is quite small, it often happens that no one is out in the fields on their tractor or up in the forest with a chainsaw.
Together these mean that quite frequently there are periods when there is no man made noise.
How often does that happen in your locality?
Do you even notice or is the daily noise you are subjected to so ubiqutous you don't even hear it? Sometimes it's not til you find yourself somewhere quiet that you realise how deafening is the silence.

And it is deafening.
There's the constant chit chat of the little birds.
Constant.
The varied buzz of passing bees, each one like a different lawn mower motor zooming back and forth - some a high pitched electric motor, others an industrial big diesel.
There's the rasping crows, punctuating the hum as they travel across the valley.
And the trees. Making a constant waterfall of noise as they move in the breeze.

It's never silent.

Which reminds me of a book I read as a teenager - Silent Spring.
It warns how one day the dawn chorus could be no more in the uk.
How lucky I am, I thought, that I can hear it before its gone.
And then I came here, and heard a real dawn chorus.
Do you know what you are missing?

The deafening silence of the countryside.

Fitting a New Tractor Window

The tractor came to us missing a rear window.

A new piece of glass has now been sourced and fitted.

You'll just have to take my word for it that there is now a piece of glass here. Photographing transparent things is a bit of a challenge.

(Bonus points for spotting the photo bomber)

The catch which allowed the window to open and close was also completely missing so a new one was fashioned.

Here's the new window catch (white thing with teeth) holding the window closed.

And here it is, holding the window open. Quite a nifty gadget, made from a bit of waste. 

. 

Pros and cons of a wet week

Pros

1. Morel mushrooms

 

I found them while out walking the dogs. Highly unexpected, as I associate mushrooms with autumn, but now I know better. They were yummy fried in butter on toast. So great to have fresh veg again. 

2. Seeds germinating

First Pea Row doing well

 Second Pea Row is also poking above the ground.

Lettuce

Leeks

Potatoes

3. General green-ness

Contrast the picture on the left, which looks like a summer drought but was actually taken a month ago, with the picture on the right, taken today, of the same location.

The whole region was looking very brown, and it's lovely to see it looking lush and green again.

Cons

Doggy paw prints all over the floor

Pustie paw prints all over the sink

What a good thing wet weather means I'm stuck indoors due to the wet weather  and I might as well do some cleaning.

Sun dried tomato update

In the summer I blogged about growing and then sundrying my own tomatoes.

This week I was planting tomato seeds and thought it was time to try some of the preserved ones.

Here's some results.

Sundried tomato bread.

I used to make this, some time ago, with store brought ingredients. It was my favorite bread. So, of course, I couldn't resist trying with my own. Here are the rolls, doing the final prove (rise).

Fresh out of the oven:

And ready for....?

 

Im really pleased with this. I used to make a lot of bread. Since moving to Slovenia, all of my bread has been very dense and heavy. This is much better. My top tips? A new packet of yeast, make the dough with warm water, not cold, and stand the bowl with the dough in it, in warm water to rise. Previously it would take all day to rise and I'd only be able to knock it down once. This time the bread was made in a (long) morning, with two knock downs and doesn't the result look good?

Conclusion: I needed better yeast and warmer temperature.

 Left over margarita pizza

This was a bit tired looking in the fridge, but some sundried tomatoes,

and some ham,

Made for a yummy quick snack while I was waiting for the bread to bake. 

The verdict on the tomatoes?

The taste is great.

I think the tomatoes were a little over dried. Which is fine, as it was my first attempt, and I wanted to make sure they weren't going to make anyone ill. But I think it makes them a bit tough. So next time, I might preserve them still a little moist.

And while the oven was on...

Spring is here, and with it, the first crop of rhubarb. 

So, of course, I had to make my favorite desert....

Rhubarb crumble

The rhubarb base

The crumble topping

After baking 

Custard, the perfect accompaniment

What a sucessfull rainy morning.

Chicken update

Chickens are due to arrive tomorrow.

So, time to test the watering system.

I'm very glad I did, because it failed. The little water cups worked perfectly but the glue holding the bottom end cap on wasn't strong enough to support the weight of water. Off came the end and gone was the water.

We could have found a stronger way to fix the bottom on, but a fix is also a chance for an upgrade. It now has at least 3 times the water holding capacity, and two cups, so less chance of bullying. 

It's made of two sections of larger diameter pipe, with two 90 degree turns making a u-bend at the bottom. The cups were inserted by drilling holes at the corner, so that they were as low as possible, but still on a vertical section of pipe. The cable ties and shaped block of wood stop the pipes twisting or becoming non-vertical. The top cable tie also forms the method of attachment - it drops into a small hook on the back wall (just visible at the top). This hook is not designed to take any weight, only to stop tipping over - the bottom sits on the floor of the cage.

And here are the cups with water added.

The tongues are float values. They cut the supply once the cups are 2/3 full. Perfect.

Let's hope the chickens approve.

Is this future chicken food?

I found this frogspawn in a puddle on a track and felt it would do better in our small artifical pond. But am I just growing small mobile chicken snacks?

How to make two pusties happy

I thought I was raking this level for the pool, but no, I was wrong, I was making a playground for cats.

First Wuwu had to rub as much soil into her fur as possible. 

Then Squiggly had to go and be, well, squiggly.

Even Wuwu wonders just what Squiggly is up to as she randomly pounces and burries her front legs into the soil.

It wasn't just a one day event, either. 

What? Someone being foolish?

Who?

Not us.

Bee rescue

I found this guy trapped in the little barn, barely moving

My first though was dehydration, because it is a dry dusty barn, so I put him in a dog bowl, which had been left out overnight, so had some drops of dew in it. Enough to drink, but not enough to drown in.

The next thought is food. I can spare a little honey for a hungry bee.

Something smells good..

 Look at that tongue

 Now for a little altitude....

By gum this is slippery when you aren't feeling strong

 Bee-n and gone.

Shiny! - tractor paint job completion.

Looking good with added name badges and reflective strips.

(But don't those wheels look terrible in comparison?)

It also did it's first job this weekend - bringing freshly cut fence posts down from the forest. It's about time it did some work.

There's one more significant job to do - to fix the brakes so they work on both wheels - and I'm sure there will be ongoing updates, but isn't it great to see it coming together?