Sunshine & strawberries.

Well the glorious weather has continued all over the weekend, yesterday was especially beautiful, our local temp was 22º and sunny all day.
We've been making the most of the lovely weather and getting lots of work done around the place.  Its been a hard weekend but very rewarding, the last three nights Ive gone to my bed, with sore and aching muscles from the extra effort we've been putting in , but its all worth the hardwork. I love it!
Rick has now finished rototilling the whole back terrace, and raked it smooth and flat, yesterday evening we finished making the very professional looking strawberry bed plus automatic drip feed irrigation system Rik made for them. Basically a 5 litre water bottle attached to hose, which runs under the plastic the length of the bed with holes drilled at regualr intervals, so I can fill the bottle once a day and thats it done. The black plastic should keep them warm and the water condensating to provide perfect growing conditions all summer.... well thats the plan anyway...

The rest of the whole area will be devoted to corn and tomatoes later.

Meanwhile Ive been pruning the kiwis, and the blackcurrants, I trimmed a lot of the prunings and have planted 60 blackcurrants cuttings, just to see if we have any luck, I know I should have done it during autumn really but I thought  if they were going to be composted anyway, I might as well try to grow them on, nothing is lost if they dont take. And who knows I may end up with tons!

We also began our planting out schedule this weekend, Rick retilled part of our main patch and we planted out almost 50 cabbages, around half green and half red. 15 caulis, and 15 brocc. A dozen or so lettuce and also started off a nice big lettuce seed bed , with hopefully enough to last us the summer as they come on at different times.  We put in a packet of spinach and some coriander, a big patch of rocket and then up at the house some pumpkin and Okra seeds in pots.

It felt so good to be getting food in the ground again, we still have the odd cabbage for eating but nothing else ready , all my winter caulis are finished, I just keep them in the ground as I pick the leaves for the dogs food and some for soup for us, the cabbages are more or less done and the leeks dont seem to have moved all winter. My broad beans have flowers but its going to be a while before we get to eat any of them.

So we are having a lean time in the garden, we still manage to eat from it most days, even if it is just leaves for soup.

Rick has also been working on a new water system for the caravan, that is used by our helpers, the tank that feeds the shower in there is so small, by the time the system is primed, its almost out of water again, so he's built a new system of a larger tank which feeds into a smaller one which houses the pump.. its looks a little 'Heath Robinson' but it works a treat. And it means we can pump from the well to fill it...

Ive a few helpers enquiring now, but although we want them its trying to decide if we can afford it at the mo, we are not short of food at all, but if I was feeding lots more people , things may get tricky, so we have to decide soon...

Things we are planning to accomplish this week while the weather holds...

We are hoping to build a small square lockable genny house, over on the top terrace, to house our generator, at present to water the veggies we have to drag a lead all over the road and our backyard to plug in the pump to the genny, for pumping from the well. If we build this we can leave it plugged in and dont have all that fuss. Rick will bricklay, I'll labour and fill buckets of cement etc... I get all the best jobs eh...

I have to finish weeding the front of cottage area, over the weekend I did the odd hour here and there and cleared the graveled patio of weeds, but still have two flower beds and the carpark to do yet...

Rick has promised that this week he'll  make my seed house too ..a kind of mini polli tunnel crossed with a upright greenhouse type thingy. I have found some good poles from the forest and we have some scrap clear plastic and plan a very basic seed house in the warm sunny back terrace, where I can try to germinate some seeds and especially some flowers this year. I always end up buying cheap bedding plants for the pots on the cottage patio and around the pool to make it look pretty for guests ect... although they are cheap, it would be cheaper still if I grew them myself... but we get such frosts till quite late in the year and I need a frost free place... so this may help, at least it will cost us nothing but effort to try it...

I want to plant my Bird of Paradise plants in the warmer area near the medicinal herb garden area, plus a couple of nice Cacti I have, Ive had to keep them in pots till this year as we didnt have a warm enough area for them so moved them to shelter during winter.
I can now plan and design my herb garden as its all tilled and raked ready for me... such an exciting time... but too early to plant seeds out there yet... the waiting is so hard!!

Glorious Weather Returns

After last weeks storm, the last few days have been glorious, 19-20º and sunny and beautiful... All is well with my world, my broad beans are looking healthy and have flowers on, my garlic is 6 inches high, the grelos is coming on and even the carrots are showing seedlings up and growing...
Rik is busy rototilling everywhere possible, the back terrace is done, ready for me to organise the new herb garden... the rest of the area will be corn, tomatoes and  strawberries..

Im so eager to get out there, but know that if I go too fast the late frosts we generally have in April will catch me out yet again...
We have guests in the cottage and a few nice enquiries coming in reguarly now... I feel hopeful for our summer season as we generally can rely on Spanish holidaymakers to fill the very hot months of July and August, and I look forward to them coming, such nice polite people.
Sorry this is so brief... I have meals to cook and wood to stack...

Stormy Weather...

Wow.... did we have a storm .... now we have become used to having some wild weather at certain times of the year, our house sits at the head of two vallies, one at the front and one from the side, and the weather seems to funnel up those vallies and hits the house . We can have huge winds and noise when the village a mere klm away over the other side of the hill has a mild breeze...
But Tuesday and wednesday... well... it was amazing... Ive never heard wind or noise like it... there actually wasnt that much rain in all, but it was driven by the high winds into places we've never had water in before... and obviously we had no sleep for two nights... we sat up in bed at 1.30 am on the weds night/early morning thursday listening to the roof of our wood barn blow around the garden... scary... very scary...
But.... when we got up thursday morning a miracle had happened.... yes the barn roof was gone, including the huge wooden beams that were still attached to the roof... (it was still all in one piece up on the land at the back of the house) but all our wood was still DRY!!! I'd been so worried all night about the wood, the barn can be fixed, but a ton of wet wood would have been a huge problem to us, we have guests arriving in a couple of days and no wood to keep them warm, we rely so much on wood here, for cooking, heating and drying the washing, but more so to keep the cottage warm for guests...
So for the wood to be dry was amazing... someone was definately smiling on us that night... the wind must have changed direction almost straight away after the roof went and the back wall of the barn being higher sheltered the wood...
So 'himself ' spent most of the day thursday stripping the tin off the beams lugging the huge beams back into place and re tinnning the roof... we have now done as the Portuguese do... and slung all kinds of heavey junk on the top too... old beams, an old car wheel we didnt know what to do with... rocks bricks and all manner of stuff... anything in fact that will weigh it down for the future... it may not look as nice as before... but I feel safer..
Poor Beesa, she spent two nights quaking in the cubby in the 'safe bed' we have for her there, she is terrified of the loud noise... she always seems to run to the cubby when shes scared so we've made her a bed in there to be comfortable, its the least we can do. Rick or I made sure we checked on her every couple of hours all night but she just would leave the safe bed, so there was nothing else we could do. Bonnie spent the nights happily in our room snug with us ... We kept the kitchen range chugging away all night both nights so the place was warm, it also warms the cubby so at least Beesa was warm.
There was very little damage done really, and away from our place you'd never know there had been a storm, the odd branch down here n there... thats all. The news showed the coastal areas had been hit quite bad, and the sea had 10 metre high waves.... wow...

Staying with Us...

Please check our calendar on the staying with us page (there is a link) It shows our bookings so far, and avoids disappointment. Ive had to turn down two people today already... why does everyone want to come the same damn week... Please book in advance... and early...

Proccesional Caterpillars BEWARE.

So. Its almost that horrible time of the year again. When we get the proccesional caterpillars come to ground. This year looks as if its going to be a very bad year, looking around us we have many more nests than last year. Rick's theory is that because of the pine wilt nemotode problem so many pines have been cut down in our area and this obviously leaves less places for them to make their nests, so the pines that are left are really covered, the government here doesnt seem to do anything to control them, its just an accepted part of spring, everyone warns you... oh watch out for them... they are so dangerous....but no one does anything..

Now there is good news and bad news about this...
The bad thing is... these damn things will kill a cat, or a dog very easily.. They apparently smell highly attractive to cats and dogs, who lick, sniff and try to eat them, we even had our Bonnie dig up some after they had gone to ground for the summer...
You have to be very quick to spot the symptoms, which can range from , a mild dose , gulping, drooling and a sort of cough.. to a bad dose, of massive drooling, tongue and face/head sweeling and rapid unconsiousness and death... Even a mild dose can in some animals cause Narcrosis of the tongue which will result in death eventually.. [I CAN ONLY TALK ABOUT DOGS, AS WE HAVE NO CATS EXPERIENCE]
Now...to dog lovers all that sounds like a nightmare.... and it can be, but... and its a big but... it need not be that bad... There are tons of websites and reems of info on the net, telling you that there's nothing you can do, or to do quite often silly things... even local vets here often just say nothing can be done...

Thats WRONG!!

Im not going to set myself up as an expert..Im not, by a long way... . but all I can do is tell you what we were told to do, and it worked...This is from personal experience....so if you have pine trees near you...

First...

Now, during Feb, buy these pills,(MEDROL. they are a prednislerone) from your local chemist... they are not expensive, they come in many sizes, we buy the 16mg ones as anything smaller and its difficult getting 20 pills down a dogs throat when its sick... Our dosage is roughly, for Beesa who is almost 50kls now 6 pills. Bonnie has 3. . It works out around 2mg per kilo of dog, dont worry about overdosing, you cant.. always give more than you think, not less... all it will do is make them very hungry...WRITE YOUR DOSAGE ON THE PACKET When /if the worst happens, you may panic and forget the dosage... Always keep the box in a agreed place to everyone...I also keep some cheesy triangles to pop the pills into , as our dogs like them.

These are not foolproof though, and must be given quickly so...

From the end of Feb if the weather is warmer, right through till early June... if you go out leave your dogs in the house... yes I know its hot, and they may pee in the house... but whats worse? pee in the house or a dead or dying dog in the garden...check around your area every morning, lots of times... if you have pine trees near you. These things can travel... fast..If you see them on the ground, pour petrol on and set them on fire, DO NOT try to move them, pick them up or touch them, even with your shoes... the fine hairs can in extreme circumstances cause humans to go into anaphalactic shock .

We have had a problem with these things with two dogs now and both lived, and continued happily and healthily...
Our lovely boy Cola the Doberman, used to love to play with pine cones... he chewed and used them as balls... the trouble is, whenever these creatures crawl over anything, like cones, they leave some of the irritating hairs that cause the trouble... your dog or you picks up the cone... and the problem starts... luckily with him, it was a mild dose, coughing, drooling, gulping... eating tons of grass etc.. we spotted the signs and acted within a hour or so...which was pushing it, but it was our first time and we just knew he was ill and not sure of the cause..

Then our stupid Bonnie... actually dug up and ate one... she began to be violently ill almost straight away, uncontrolable pooing... her face swelled to double its size within a very short time... 10 mins.. and she was unconsious, it was terrible. But we forced the pills down her and within an hour she was playing in the garden... the most important thing with both these cases, is speed... we had the pills, we used them... and we were there to spot the signs....
Yes... its a pain in the bum , we check the whole place all the time during the few weeks of the worst period.. we shut them in if we are not there, we carry the pills with us if we walk them in the forest... and we give the pills even if we are not sure... but for us its worked.. and our girls lives and health are worth the hassle...


You will know if you have nests in your pines trees, they look like a bundle of cobweb, or white candyfloss...

Frugal Living Menus

Its been a while since I posted a weekly menu list, I know I said I'd do it often, but hell.. you know how things are and these things get a tad lost at times... so.
We have started eating our main meal at lunchtime recently, it seems to suit our stomachs better... no more acid and indigestion at bedtime...
Oh and we are now just having homemade fresh plain yogurt for breakfast everyday , the yogurt maker is working a treat and we are loving it...

Starting Saturday past.

Pot Roast Chicken,
one of Ricks fave meals at the moment. I have a large terracotta pot, and in the bottom I put a bed of potatoes, chopped onion, garlic, plenty of carrots, sliced beans and brocoli (its the only way he'll eat it) the odd cherry tom if I have some, then put the whole chicken on top, sprinkle with oregano and sage a dash of olive oil and about a pint of stock. Put the lid on and slow cook it for 2-3 hours ... longer if you want...
We then fish out the chicken , have some of it with some of the veggies from the bottom and possibly some buttered cabbage.
The rest of the chicken gets stripped off the bones, the breast I bag up for a chicken/rice dish another day, the scrappy smaller bits go back into the pot with the left over veggies.
The bones, fat and skin and other yucky stuff goes into a pot to cook up for the dogs.

For our evening meal, we just had Pate and fresh bread...

Sunday Lunch.
Chicken Pasta .
This is yesterdays leftover chicken scraps in the leftover veggies and juice with pasta added... it goes sort of thick and saucy... lovely . There is more than enough for two...

Evening meal
My cabbage 'stuff' again a fave thing with Rick lately, In a pan gently fry a whole chopped onion till just soft, add the left over cabbage, lots of it! I then cut up and cube some stale soda bread, add a few leftover cooked dried beans, and stir well... put the lid on and it will make its own steam liquid if cooked gently it wont burn... keep stiring now and again, it only takes a few mins though... just at the last min add plenty of thinly sliced garlic... leave for a couple of min stir well and serve... yummy...

Monday. Lunch.

Veggie stew.
I just cook up whatever comes to hand... in this weeks we have, cauli, carrots, onions, garlic toms, green beans, broccoli, potatoes, and a sliced chorizo sausage,cover with a good stock. I also add Massa De Pimento, which is red pepper paste. Let it all simmer nicely for a few hours and serve with rice. I always do enough to make it last two days.. saves time, energy and money...

Evening meal.
Homemade fresh cheese and soda bread...

Tuesday Lunch

Veggie stew again, but we had it with spaggetti today.

Tonights meal is homecured bacon, egg, I have a few mushrooms that need using and some sliced fried potatoes...

Wed Lunch.

Chicken Rice, with veggies, a sort of Rissoto, using leftover chicken from the freezer.

Evening meal .
Homemade cheats baked beans with soda bread...

Thurs Lunch.
Soya Spag Bol

Evening meal.
Homemade veggie soup and bread...

Thats about as far ahead as I have organised at the moment, but should give you some ideas to try.

General Update.

Well the weather has been so glorious this past week that we've spent most of the days working outside, I havent even lit the kitchen range untill it was time to cook the evening meal. Its still been frosty in the mornings but soon cleared up when the sun came up to be warm and sunny all day. We've had temps of 17 -19º lovely!
We are both feeling the work we've done now though, both Rick and I are both stiff and aching from hard work... so today is a bit overcast and we are due a few showers and the rest is welcome...
We've been working on the terrace we call the back garden, its about 100 metres long by around 30 or so in places, rather irregualer in shape , it runs behind the house between us and the cottage, and its where we grow our tomatoes and corn, we have a few olive trees and a Pomegranete tree there too. Its very overgrown in places and the wall has collapsed as well, which is difficult, it will have to stay as it is for the forseeable future as we have so many other things to do. But we've strimmed the whole area, Ive been and dug a lot of it with the portuguese fork to unearth large rocks and a whole bin full of broken bottles pots and pans and tins.. Just to make the area safer to work on and easier for Rick to rototill with Herman, as we have to go through that area to get Herman up to the herb garden area which I want to organise as soon as possible.
The whole area is loking much cleaner and tidier now, obviously still lots to do, but there always is... but at least we can till the ground and prepare it for growing in now.
We are also busy working on the rental cottage area, the wooden pergola over the seating area fell down the other day, it had been up about three years but covered by such heavy vines the wood just couldnt take it, some were rotten too, so Rick has renewed all that and put it back up, Ive weeded the area and tidied up , I still have a couple of flower beds to weed and the carpark to do... It makes a lot more work but we dont spray to kill that kind of stuff so someone has to do it...

I'm having another go at the curing my own bacon thing... this time Ive cut the level of salt and upped the sugar a bit... It will take longer but should be a bit more to our taste... the first batch is almost gone, we did enjoy it, but it was just a touch too salty... Thinking of trying a ham soon...
Ive also had a go at making my own soft cheese, again, not a complete success but it was edible and we had it with homemeade bread and it made a decent meal.
Im having another go soon and when Ive perfected it ... or as much as I can, I'll post how I did it, and some pictures...
We find cheese is a huge expense here, and not particuarly good at that.. I do miss good cheese... trouble is, I like goats cheese, which here is excellent... but his lordship wont eat it and its too expensive to buy just for me...
But any kind of strong hard cheese is hard to get here... which means cooking with it is hard... and we like cheesy sauces etc...

I'd love to get to the stage where we are eating our own veggies, fruit, cheese, yogurt (Rick loves it) bread, ham and bacon... even though I dont breed the meat myself I count it as mine if I cure it... Olive oil and olives, wine... Ooooh sounds delish...

I plan so many more preserves this year... much more drying... sundried toms, and figs and maybe some grapes too...
The tomato puree and tomato sauce and Pasta sauce has been such a success Im going to do tons more... Plus lots of our own dried beans, and hopefully some peas if we get a good crop...
I also have a greenhouse plan in my mind... Poor Rick... A three sided one making use of the outside wall of the house where the stone wall will hold the heat it gets during the day to release it at night and stop the frost at night, just to bring on my seeds during spring, as we have such late frosts up here, it would really save me time... we have some glass panels, its just a matter of building it... plus I could overwinter some things that would help like herbs etc...

Frugal Living. Recipe, Apple Dappy.

I call this a frugal recipe as it takes so little ingredients, swells up large and doesnt even need an egg. You can jazz it up as much as you like or leave it as plain as you like.

Ricks Favourite dessert at the moment...

Basic Mix
8oz S/R flour.
2oz Cooking Marg
1 teaspoon Baking Powder.
Couple tablespoons of sugar.
One chopped apple, peel on.
Milk to mix.

Put flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl, rub in marg to breadcrumb consistency. Mix to a stiff dough with the milk.
Roll out as you would pastry, sprinkle with the chopped apple, some sultanas if you have some or anything else that takes your fancy really.
Roll up gently.
Cut into inch wide slices and put in a greased dish. sprinkle top with sugar.

At this point, you can just gently bake it and have it with custard. It will rise and fill out a lot...

But I make a little sugar syrup, just two spoonfuls of brown sugar with hot water and pour it over , it will then give you a nice sticky toffee type bottom... I also add a big handful of coconut to the topping as Rick loves coconut...

It cooks really quick in a med hot oven, just around 10 mis or so... so watch it carefully!

I've made it with kiwis when I had a glut, and jam when we were broke... its very adaptable.
This recipe will feed four easily with some left over...
Its good cold too...

Sunshine & Frost...Our Weather...

Well we are so glad that we (Rick) actually made the effort to build a framework (plastic & wood) and fill in the door and bottom of the stairs... its made a huge difference to the warmth factor in the house... and boy do we need it at night the last week or so... During the day its gorgeous, after about 10.30 am... and in the sun. But before that, and after the sun goes down at night... our temps are plummiting.. we've had huge heavy frosts now for over a week. Its not unusual, Jan and Feb are normally the worst of our winter months, by the end of Feb we can expect it to start warming up... and getting a little more of the wet stuff coming too... its been very dry lately , the one day of showers we had last week was actually very welcome, my cabbage was really suffering from the lack of water..
We have to go into the forest again now and collect as much wood for fires as possible, we are using it all day ourselves and now we have guests coming today too. Plus a few good bookings on the way for Feb... so we'll need tons to keep guests warm. Generally they come from the UK and are used to central heating, double glazing, carpets... etc... the idea of putting on an extra jumper doesnt occur to most people. They expect to be able to walk around inside houses with short sleeve teeshirts and be warm enough... Personally I think its crazy. Its winter... wear a jumper... wear an extra one if your still cold! Move around...! Heheheheh but hey thats me... I tend to wear most of the clothes I own all at one time during winter... Rick thinks I lose weight during spring every year... No I just shed several layers of clothing over the space of a few weeks...
Its lovely to have the sun though, it cheers the spirits, and at least we can get on with the huge list of jobs to be done before summer...
Its annoying when its pouring with rain and we have to stay inside lazing around when there is so much to be done.