J is doing exceptionally well at his new school in the UK. I moved back to the UK at the end of October. Saying goodbye to our animals, home, friends and family was impossibly hard, I think I created a bubble around me to deal with it all.
On my return to Mallorca in September Ruffa-Roo was visibly ill. He'd lost weight in the 3 weeks I'd been away and he had lumps under his skin. I took him to the vet and almost immediately had to have him put to sleep. A biopsy taken, whilst I was away, showed he had very late stage cancer. He was beginning to have problems with his breathing and I decided not to make him suffer anymore - chemo was not an option - I saw what it did to C. No more suffering.
With an unbelievably awful year behind us, both J and I are now trying to move on with our lives. It is very hard to know what direction to go in at the moment, but I am sure that will come in time, hopefully sooner rather than later.
We both miss Mallorca very much and our life there, but onwards and upwards is the only way to go.
Thank you to all those that read this blog over the recent years. It will still be left here for now and you never know, perhaps added to again in the future.
Goodbye and always believe anything is possible, even if it only lasts a little while. xx
Showing posts with label Mallorca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mallorca. Show all posts
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
INTO 2015 WITH A BANG!
Well, another year, HAPPY 2015 EVERYONE.
It has been a bit of time since writing.
This winter has been particularly cold (unlike last year). We haven't had any snow down on the ground in Sa Pobla, although I know there has been some in other parts of the island. The mountains had LOADS of snow dumped on them, and the chill winds blow freezing air off them down to our town! brrrrrrrrrrr!!
These photos were taken from near our finca in Sa Pobla. A beautiful sight on a cold but glorious sunny day.
On to the animals... The hens are all grown up and laying well. Our cockerel is growing enormous but luckily is still friendly. I haven't heard him crow very well yet, but I have heard him trying, which seems to be a strange mix of a gurgle/strangling sound and a yodle! The dogs are fine except Ruffa Roo seems rather sick today - no food for him tonight and we will see how he is in the morning.
We still have no vegetables growing, we will see what the next few weeks brings.
Hope to post again very soon.
It has been a bit of time since writing.
This winter has been particularly cold (unlike last year). We haven't had any snow down on the ground in Sa Pobla, although I know there has been some in other parts of the island. The mountains had LOADS of snow dumped on them, and the chill winds blow freezing air off them down to our town! brrrrrrrrrrr!!
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| PUIG DE MASANELLA (Mallorca's second highest mountain) |
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| Puig de Masanella (Puig means 'hill' in Catalan - although technically this is a mountain!) |
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| Puig de Masanella |
On to the animals... The hens are all grown up and laying well. Our cockerel is growing enormous but luckily is still friendly. I haven't heard him crow very well yet, but I have heard him trying, which seems to be a strange mix of a gurgle/strangling sound and a yodle! The dogs are fine except Ruffa Roo seems rather sick today - no food for him tonight and we will see how he is in the morning.
We still have no vegetables growing, we will see what the next few weeks brings.
Hope to post again very soon.
Monday, April 15, 2013
KITTENS AND THE ORANGE BLOSSOM
Well last night proved to be rather eventful, for me anyway. Two days ago we noticed that our female mummy cat Jess, was really bulging - we have known she was pregnant for quite a while now. She was also rummaging about outside to find a suitable nest site and being over friendly with us all, she definitely didn't want to be outside and seemed to want to be near us all the time. We helped her a couple of years ago with her first lot of kittens, she trusts us which is lovely.
Last night at about 10pm she went into labour. Her nest is a basket tied to the end of on of our beds with blankets in. We decided to bring her in this time as there are always many more complications when kittens are born outside! When the kittens are a bit stronger they'll all go out again. So, I placed food and water on a chair near the bed and her litter box I put in the room also, so that she didn't have to go to far for it.
At 12.58AM the first kitten appeared. A little black one, I haven't seen any white on it yet. 25 minutes later a tabby and white appeared. Jess is a brilliant mum but she really wanted me near, she kept wanting to hold my finger and rub her face on my hand. At about 2AM I managed to doze off finally but awoke again around 3AM to another being born, by 4AM the final one came and I snuggled down to sleep before having to get up at 7.30 this morning!
I woke exhausted - I don't function well on very little sleep, so today I've felt like my head had been wrapped in cotton wool! We raced to get J ready for school only to realise that he really wasn't well, so as I had an appointment with physio, we took him to the doc! turns out J has a chest infection. As I've mentioned before, chest infections are extremely commonplace here usually due to the damp conditions of the island, but by the time May/June come around everyone is fine again!
So, we raced into town, picked up a prescription and then decided he should stay off school for today. We then drove over to a friends finca, the other side of Sa Pobla, just to check on a few things for them. When we got back in the car to go off food shopping, the car wouldn't start. Not a peak, NO SOUND, NOTHING, NADA....... PANIC ran through me! Oh NO, I thought, please not on a day when I have so much to do and my brain is like candyfloss! A Mallorquin farmer, doing his irrigation in the field next door, came up to the fence to ask what the problem was, I told him and he immediately said 'aaaaahhhh, es la batería'. He was telling me the battery was kaput! I hoped and prayed that he was right. He said he'd be 10 minutes finishing his watering and he'd be over with a spare! Blimey, I couldn't believe our luck, then the thought dawned on me that perhaps it wasn't the battery and that it was something a lot more serious! The car is on it's way out anyway. The farmer came round with the battery on his moped and between him and C, fixed it in place. FANTASTICO! It worked, he was right. I could have grabbed hold of him and spun him round with delight, but I thought better of it, as it would have been highly inappropriate. So I just thanked him enormously and said we'd get it sorted this week and drop the battery back to him as soon as possible. Talk about trust, you wouldn't get that sort of help even from a neighbour in the UK!
On the way back to the town to do the food shop, I felt calmer and less 'candyflossed' in the brain, the smell of orange blossoms around Sa Pobla is very strong at the moment. Heaven. At our finca, the scent is very heady but wonderful. The vegetables are all growing, slowly but surely, and all is fine and dandy after a crazy day and night.
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| Jess beginning labour. |
Last night at about 10pm she went into labour. Her nest is a basket tied to the end of on of our beds with blankets in. We decided to bring her in this time as there are always many more complications when kittens are born outside! When the kittens are a bit stronger they'll all go out again. So, I placed food and water on a chair near the bed and her litter box I put in the room also, so that she didn't have to go to far for it.
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| Basket nest for Jess. |
At 12.58AM the first kitten appeared. A little black one, I haven't seen any white on it yet. 25 minutes later a tabby and white appeared. Jess is a brilliant mum but she really wanted me near, she kept wanting to hold my finger and rub her face on my hand. At about 2AM I managed to doze off finally but awoke again around 3AM to another being born, by 4AM the final one came and I snuggled down to sleep before having to get up at 7.30 this morning!
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| 4 little bundles of fluff. There is a tabby & white, grey stripey, dark grey & white and a little black one |
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| Not so easy to see them but they are all there with mum somewhere. Jess is a small adult cat and is very delicate when she walks about, but is a great mum. |
I woke exhausted - I don't function well on very little sleep, so today I've felt like my head had been wrapped in cotton wool! We raced to get J ready for school only to realise that he really wasn't well, so as I had an appointment with physio, we took him to the doc! turns out J has a chest infection. As I've mentioned before, chest infections are extremely commonplace here usually due to the damp conditions of the island, but by the time May/June come around everyone is fine again!
So, we raced into town, picked up a prescription and then decided he should stay off school for today. We then drove over to a friends finca, the other side of Sa Pobla, just to check on a few things for them. When we got back in the car to go off food shopping, the car wouldn't start. Not a peak, NO SOUND, NOTHING, NADA....... PANIC ran through me! Oh NO, I thought, please not on a day when I have so much to do and my brain is like candyfloss! A Mallorquin farmer, doing his irrigation in the field next door, came up to the fence to ask what the problem was, I told him and he immediately said 'aaaaahhhh, es la batería'. He was telling me the battery was kaput! I hoped and prayed that he was right. He said he'd be 10 minutes finishing his watering and he'd be over with a spare! Blimey, I couldn't believe our luck, then the thought dawned on me that perhaps it wasn't the battery and that it was something a lot more serious! The car is on it's way out anyway. The farmer came round with the battery on his moped and between him and C, fixed it in place. FANTASTICO! It worked, he was right. I could have grabbed hold of him and spun him round with delight, but I thought better of it, as it would have been highly inappropriate. So I just thanked him enormously and said we'd get it sorted this week and drop the battery back to him as soon as possible. Talk about trust, you wouldn't get that sort of help even from a neighbour in the UK!
On the way back to the town to do the food shop, I felt calmer and less 'candyflossed' in the brain, the smell of orange blossoms around Sa Pobla is very strong at the moment. Heaven. At our finca, the scent is very heady but wonderful. The vegetables are all growing, slowly but surely, and all is fine and dandy after a crazy day and night.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
SANT ANTONI, SANT SEBASTIAN AND MORE PRUNING
It has been a busy week. Now after all the festivities we can settle into a more 'normal' routine again.
Between the correfoc, which is really the start of the Sant Antoni celebrations, and Sant Antoni itself on the night of the 16th and day of the 17th January, we began quite a lot of pruning. We have some overgrown bougainvillea, which we began to prune a while ago, it seems to be a continuous job as it is such a tangled mess. Also some old pear trees, which didn't look as if they had been touched for years, I de-tangled one, which was overgrown by some flowing, climbing plant and have pruned back some of the branches and spurs. I will tackle a little more of those later this winter.
Samuel Sprat helping me prune the pear tree!
Pruning pear trees (on right) and bougainvillea (ahead)
Whilst pruning the dog rose I found a large grasshopper. It maybe a locust or a cicada, I'm not sure, I haven't looked him up yet. But he was very green so I think he had probably only recently molted.
All the rose bushes (bar one!) are now pruned and ready for new growth to begin. The old infested apple tree roots etc have now been dug out and we had a fire on the earth it was in to kill off any bugs there.
On the day of the 16th, J went to school as usual, but all the children from all the schools in Sa Pobla go on a traditional walk to and old area of land called Sa Llebre, where they collect wood and eat various Mallorcan delicacies such as sobrasada and botifaro, both are types of sausage and are made at the time of the matanzas (pig killings). We collected J from school at around 1pm today, and went home to have lunch. At 2.30pm we whizzed back to the town to the church where J waited with his devil's pitch fork for the dimonis (devils) to come out of the vicarage.
The Dimonis come out of the vicarage and begin their walk/run around the town.
All around the streets are bonfires built close to the buildings, on cross-roads, by the bars and restaurants, and many are wrapped in herbs, olive leaves and various leafy brush, these are not lit until the evening.
The devils appeared and everyone screamed in excitement because now the children chase the devils around the town and the devils chase the children and go into every bar/restaurant along the way. Some kids are terrified, understandably, even some of the adults run away! But it is all part of the tradition and it is great fun. I met several Mallorcan friends at the bar where I was having a drink and they were supposed to be having siesta but were too excited so came out to join in instead - excellent.
A couple of hours later, we caught up with J, who was exhausted and thirsty. This year we gave him a mobile phone so he could keep in touch with us, we lost him last year, and it was a bit of a panic. Then we went home for a rest.
That evening, C, J and I went into town at about 9pm, we made our way to the main square (Placa Major) and were met with thousands of people. It was packed and we couldn't stand where we wanted to, so we ran round the back streets and stood at the top end of the square where we had a better view. Not many photos to put on here for this night. The first thing we saw were the caparrots doing their traditional dance, and the devils did their dance also. C lifted J up so he could see the dances and we were told later that evening that he was seen on the local TV channel - fame at last.
Then at the end of the dances, the lights went out...The music began and a big pyromusic display followed. It was wonderful. However, poor J, just before it ended, was violently sick, by a tree we managed to find amongst the crowd - oh dear, not a good way to end the evening. It took a while to escape the dense crowd of locals and tourists but we got him home to bed eventually.
The next day he seemed fine and we were due to see the Caparrots dance and watch the blessing of the animals (Beneides) at the church, but once we got into town he was unwell again! so off home we went again.
After all the Sant Antoni celebrations all the fires were rebuilt ready for Sant Sebastian. This fiesta is held on the 20th January and on the night of the 19th, we were invited to a party held by one of our good friends, Sebastian. Here in Spain (Mallorca), if your name is the same as a Saints, you have what is called a Saints day. A bit like a birthday, so you often have gifts and a big meal. It was an honour to be invited and very much enjoyed. After eating, we said our goodbyes and left. We looked at a few of the fires still burning and went home.
Now the year can really start. Next big fiesta I think is Easter, but there always seems to be something happening here, so I expect there will be celebrations going on between now and then.
Between the correfoc, which is really the start of the Sant Antoni celebrations, and Sant Antoni itself on the night of the 16th and day of the 17th January, we began quite a lot of pruning. We have some overgrown bougainvillea, which we began to prune a while ago, it seems to be a continuous job as it is such a tangled mess. Also some old pear trees, which didn't look as if they had been touched for years, I de-tangled one, which was overgrown by some flowing, climbing plant and have pruned back some of the branches and spurs. I will tackle a little more of those later this winter.
Samuel Sprat helping me prune the pear tree!
Pruning pear trees (on right) and bougainvillea (ahead)
Whilst pruning the dog rose I found a large grasshopper. It maybe a locust or a cicada, I'm not sure, I haven't looked him up yet. But he was very green so I think he had probably only recently molted.
All the rose bushes (bar one!) are now pruned and ready for new growth to begin. The old infested apple tree roots etc have now been dug out and we had a fire on the earth it was in to kill off any bugs there.
Starting a fire where the old infected apple tree was.
On the day of the 16th, J went to school as usual, but all the children from all the schools in Sa Pobla go on a traditional walk to and old area of land called Sa Llebre, where they collect wood and eat various Mallorcan delicacies such as sobrasada and botifaro, both are types of sausage and are made at the time of the matanzas (pig killings). We collected J from school at around 1pm today, and went home to have lunch. At 2.30pm we whizzed back to the town to the church where J waited with his devil's pitch fork for the dimonis (devils) to come out of the vicarage.
The Dimonis come out of the vicarage and begin their walk/run around the town.
All the fires are ready to be lit this evening. Older children play with fireworks and firecrackers/bangers by placing them in the fires before they are lit.
The devils appeared and everyone screamed in excitement because now the children chase the devils around the town and the devils chase the children and go into every bar/restaurant along the way. Some kids are terrified, understandably, even some of the adults run away! But it is all part of the tradition and it is great fun. I met several Mallorcan friends at the bar where I was having a drink and they were supposed to be having siesta but were too excited so came out to join in instead - excellent.
A couple of hours later, we caught up with J, who was exhausted and thirsty. This year we gave him a mobile phone so he could keep in touch with us, we lost him last year, and it was a bit of a panic. Then we went home for a rest.
That evening, C, J and I went into town at about 9pm, we made our way to the main square (Placa Major) and were met with thousands of people. It was packed and we couldn't stand where we wanted to, so we ran round the back streets and stood at the top end of the square where we had a better view. Not many photos to put on here for this night. The first thing we saw were the caparrots doing their traditional dance, and the devils did their dance also. C lifted J up so he could see the dances and we were told later that evening that he was seen on the local TV channel - fame at last.
The devil lit up on the top of the town hall in Sa Pobla
Fireworks from the top of the town hall.
All lit up
Then at the end of the dances, the lights went out...The music began and a big pyromusic display followed. It was wonderful. However, poor J, just before it ended, was violently sick, by a tree we managed to find amongst the crowd - oh dear, not a good way to end the evening. It took a while to escape the dense crowd of locals and tourists but we got him home to bed eventually.
The next day he seemed fine and we were due to see the Caparrots dance and watch the blessing of the animals (Beneides) at the church, but once we got into town he was unwell again! so off home we went again.
After all the Sant Antoni celebrations all the fires were rebuilt ready for Sant Sebastian. This fiesta is held on the 20th January and on the night of the 19th, we were invited to a party held by one of our good friends, Sebastian. Here in Spain (Mallorca), if your name is the same as a Saints, you have what is called a Saints day. A bit like a birthday, so you often have gifts and a big meal. It was an honour to be invited and very much enjoyed. After eating, we said our goodbyes and left. We looked at a few of the fires still burning and went home.
Now the year can really start. Next big fiesta I think is Easter, but there always seems to be something happening here, so I expect there will be celebrations going on between now and then.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE PRICKLY KIND
On Thursday afternoon, I cleaned out the chicken coop and the turkey pen, giving them all fresh straw and sorting out the dishevelled nest boxes. Just as I was finishing raking up the poop in the Hilda's pen (the turkey), J gave a shout for me to go to him. I thought something had happened but when I got to him, by the front of the house, there on the ground was a little curled up bundle of prickles - a hedgehog! I was so excited, it's only the second one I have ever seen - alive - the dogs seemed rather interested in it, but were keeping their distance, they have obviously encountered them before! I picked up our little spiny fellow and checked he was ok and not injured.
He was quite happy and seemed quite healthy. He was obviously after the dry dog food! We popped him into the old cat basket with some straw and I went to look up some information on them. Hedgehogs are different here in Mallorca, in that they do not really hibernate. We put him into the veggie plot as we had no idea where he came from in the first place.
We didn't see him on Friday, but on Saturday we found him again, in the middle of the driveway - he was nearly flattened by me in the car - very well camouflaged. Again we put him back into the veggie plot. If we see him again I will take him to the fields and let him loose.
C & J went to the local farm yesterday to help out the farmer, who was pulling plastic bags and rubbish from his rice field, it seems some of it comes with the fertilizer (natural) that he gets! The call it 'abono' here, we had some from him a few months ago, but got some better stuff from another farming friend shortly afterwards.
This morning, I had one of the hen's eggs for breakfast - a double yolker - wonderful. Keep 'em coming girls.
He was quite happy and seemed quite healthy. He was obviously after the dry dog food! We popped him into the old cat basket with some straw and I went to look up some information on them. Hedgehogs are different here in Mallorca, in that they do not really hibernate. We put him into the veggie plot as we had no idea where he came from in the first place.
We didn't see him on Friday, but on Saturday we found him again, in the middle of the driveway - he was nearly flattened by me in the car - very well camouflaged. Again we put him back into the veggie plot. If we see him again I will take him to the fields and let him loose.
C & J went to the local farm yesterday to help out the farmer, who was pulling plastic bags and rubbish from his rice field, it seems some of it comes with the fertilizer (natural) that he gets! The call it 'abono' here, we had some from him a few months ago, but got some better stuff from another farming friend shortly afterwards.
This morning, I had one of the hen's eggs for breakfast - a double yolker - wonderful. Keep 'em coming girls.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
THE 18KG (40lb) TURKEY
A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.
Christmas Eve was a busy day. Mum took J Christmas shopping to Inca (the nearest big town to us here in Sa Pobla). She had him for the whole day, which meant that C and I could pop out and do final bits and pieces as well as organising 'things' here at the house.
The hens laid their eggs, well, two anyway. C & I wrapped the prezzies (not many this year), and did some cleaning and housework. We then discussed what to do with the turkey.
We decided to unwrap the bird and clean it up and place it, ready, into the large oven baking tray, we had a sudden moment of doom, thinking that it wouldn't fit in the oven, but then I suggested we cut off the parsons nose and bake it separately, that way the bird would fit. We also realised the fact that there was NO WAY it would fit if we put the bird on a rack to cook. It would be too high and touch the top of the oven. We strung the wings and legs together, I inserted butter under the skin and seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs. Then stuffed a pierced orange (straight off the tree) and lemon into the main cavity and an onion (from our local farmer) in the neck. We decided not to stuff it as it was so big.
C preparing the rack we didn't use.
All wrapped up and covered in foil we put it temporarily into the oven. We originally thought to cook it slowly overnight, which is great if you have a very deep pan and a rack for the turkey, however, this would not have worked and actually cooking such a huge bird doesn't take a lot longer than a 20lb (9Kg) bird. So we knew we would have to get up especially early on Christmas morning to pop the oven on.
Christmas Eve evening C & I went over to mum's to have a family dinner with my aunt and also to pick up J, who was exhausted from his day with Grandma. Dinner was wonderful, roast pork with lots of vegetables, followed by meringue with cream and berries and mince pies - yummmy. The pork had come from the local butcher. Meat here is so much nicer than in the UK, even the supermarket meat tastes better than the UK supermarket meat. We finished dinner, and a little mulled wine, and said our Happy Christmases and off home we went.
J put his gifts under the tree and laid his stocking at the foot of his bed. He put out his note, a mince pie & a glass of milk for Santa, a carrot for Rudolf and then off to bed, complaining that he was never going to get to sleep as he was so excited. He crashed out 10 minutes later.
C & I made final preparations, had the fire burning to warm the place up, carols and mugs of mulled wine. I think Santa came at about 23:00hrs because I heard a rustling sound, but when I looked in on Josh, there was his stocking filled to the brim, but no Santa! I was happy for him that Santa had visited and C & I went to bed. Setting the alarm for 4am so I could put the oven on - groan!
1AM RUFFA WAKES ME UP - HE WANTS TO GO OUT!
ALARM GOES OFF - ITS 4 AM - ohhhhhhh, I am sooooooo tired. I leap out of bed and bleary eyed turn the oven to 250 c degrees, remembering to pull the turkey out first, crikey it weighed a ton at that time in the morning, I nearly did myself in! I popped the kettle on and went to put something warm on. The cold creeps up your legs through the concrete and tiled floors - it's painful! So with my red woolley Christmas socks from Norway and my turquoise crocs (lovely combo!) I went to make mugs of tea. C joined me. We were trying to be very quiet but it seems that the quieter you try to be, the more noise you end up making! we sat and talked and drank our tea, at 4.30AM I said I was putting the bird in. In it went. A feeling of panic arose as I thought, perhaps, after all our crazy efforts to raise our Christmas dinner, it would be inedible!! We blasted the turkey for about 40-45mins then turned the heat to about 210 degrees C and went back to bed. It was now about 5AM. I had just snuggled in when I heard 'Mummy?', there in the gloom was a very bright eyed 9 year old. I asked him if Santa had been, he said he had, so I told him to get his stocking and bring it to our bed. This is normal for him, he always opens his stocking with us - it's quite a laugh really and fantastic to see the look on his face - a kind of sick, exhausted, excitement!
Done, so well, that one of the legs fell off!
The turkey plate is for a normal size turkey, we had to remove the wings and legs and then it only just fitted.
A happy Christmas was had by us this year and on a small budget, I am proud of ourselves for achieving this.
Christmas Eve was a busy day. Mum took J Christmas shopping to Inca (the nearest big town to us here in Sa Pobla). She had him for the whole day, which meant that C and I could pop out and do final bits and pieces as well as organising 'things' here at the house.
The hens laid their eggs, well, two anyway. C & I wrapped the prezzies (not many this year), and did some cleaning and housework. We then discussed what to do with the turkey.
We decided to unwrap the bird and clean it up and place it, ready, into the large oven baking tray, we had a sudden moment of doom, thinking that it wouldn't fit in the oven, but then I suggested we cut off the parsons nose and bake it separately, that way the bird would fit. We also realised the fact that there was NO WAY it would fit if we put the bird on a rack to cook. It would be too high and touch the top of the oven. We strung the wings and legs together, I inserted butter under the skin and seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs. Then stuffed a pierced orange (straight off the tree) and lemon into the main cavity and an onion (from our local farmer) in the neck. We decided not to stuff it as it was so big.
All wrapped up and covered in foil we put it temporarily into the oven. We originally thought to cook it slowly overnight, which is great if you have a very deep pan and a rack for the turkey, however, this would not have worked and actually cooking such a huge bird doesn't take a lot longer than a 20lb (9Kg) bird. So we knew we would have to get up especially early on Christmas morning to pop the oven on.
Christmas Eve evening C & I went over to mum's to have a family dinner with my aunt and also to pick up J, who was exhausted from his day with Grandma. Dinner was wonderful, roast pork with lots of vegetables, followed by meringue with cream and berries and mince pies - yummmy. The pork had come from the local butcher. Meat here is so much nicer than in the UK, even the supermarket meat tastes better than the UK supermarket meat. We finished dinner, and a little mulled wine, and said our Happy Christmases and off home we went.
J put his gifts under the tree and laid his stocking at the foot of his bed. He put out his note, a mince pie & a glass of milk for Santa, a carrot for Rudolf and then off to bed, complaining that he was never going to get to sleep as he was so excited. He crashed out 10 minutes later.
C & I made final preparations, had the fire burning to warm the place up, carols and mugs of mulled wine. I think Santa came at about 23:00hrs because I heard a rustling sound, but when I looked in on Josh, there was his stocking filled to the brim, but no Santa! I was happy for him that Santa had visited and C & I went to bed. Setting the alarm for 4am so I could put the oven on - groan!
1AM RUFFA WAKES ME UP - HE WANTS TO GO OUT!
ALARM GOES OFF - ITS 4 AM - ohhhhhhh, I am sooooooo tired. I leap out of bed and bleary eyed turn the oven to 250 c degrees, remembering to pull the turkey out first, crikey it weighed a ton at that time in the morning, I nearly did myself in! I popped the kettle on and went to put something warm on. The cold creeps up your legs through the concrete and tiled floors - it's painful! So with my red woolley Christmas socks from Norway and my turquoise crocs (lovely combo!) I went to make mugs of tea. C joined me. We were trying to be very quiet but it seems that the quieter you try to be, the more noise you end up making! we sat and talked and drank our tea, at 4.30AM I said I was putting the bird in. In it went. A feeling of panic arose as I thought, perhaps, after all our crazy efforts to raise our Christmas dinner, it would be inedible!! We blasted the turkey for about 40-45mins then turned the heat to about 210 degrees C and went back to bed. It was now about 5AM. I had just snuggled in when I heard 'Mummy?', there in the gloom was a very bright eyed 9 year old. I asked him if Santa had been, he said he had, so I told him to get his stocking and bring it to our bed. This is normal for him, he always opens his stocking with us - it's quite a laugh really and fantastic to see the look on his face - a kind of sick, exhausted, excitement!
We all got a few more zzzzz's. At 8am I was up and we all went about our chores. Feeding the animals, collecting eggs, preparing breakfast, skyping family abroad etc. At about 9.30am we took the turkey out of the oven to see how it was doing...AMAZING, it was doing fantastically. There was so much stock in the base of the pan that I had to remove it with a turkey baster before pulling the turkey out, otherwise the kitchen floor would have been swimming in it! The bird was too big to turn over so we left it, basted and back in the oven. By 11am the bird was done - we couldn't believe it. Only 6.5 hours. We let it rest for some time and cool down a little, steam was still coming out of it an hour later. C prepared most of the vegetables and started cooking and preparing the rest of the dinner. When it came to carving the turkey the meat just fell off the bone, the flavour was great. I am so happy we did it,we produced our own turkey and it was good. However, we now have enough to last us for weeks, so we are going to make pies and curries and freeze them.
Done, so well, that one of the legs fell off!
The turkey plate is for a normal size turkey, we had to remove the wings and legs and then it only just fitted.
A happy Christmas was had by us this year and on a small budget, I am proud of ourselves for achieving this.
Monday, September 24, 2012
TURKEYS, CHICKEN POX AND SUNSET
Well, I noticed yesterday that although the turkeys are really happy and growing very well, feeding and drinking with no problems, they both had black spots on their heads and necks!! today I have notice it is also on their bodies - AAARRRRGGHHH!! What is it?? I have searched and researched on the web and I think I have discovered what it is. It is the poultry version of CHICKEN POX!! I believe the correct term for it is Fowl Pox - NICE!!
So what to do??? I am awaiting a reply from Backyard Chickens.com, someone must know some more info on this virus! I don't think there is anything we can do, just ride it out like humans have to. We will see what tomorrow brings.
The turkeys and the chickens all seem to be doing well for now. I think rain is forecast in the next couple of days, but I'm hoping we won't get flooded again, not much fun for the birds, although they all seem to dry out pretty quickly as we are still getting warm sunny days with temperatures around 28C or more. Lovely.
I want to change the turkey house and make it a little higher as they are growing so fast, but I haven't any materials at the moment, I may have to improvise - as usual.
As all the birds began to settle down for the night, I went to change the turkey's water and they hopped up onto their house to roost for the night. The sunset was amazing from their pen and across the fields.
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| I think the black dots are the 'fowl pox'! |
The turkeys and the chickens all seem to be doing well for now. I think rain is forecast in the next couple of days, but I'm hoping we won't get flooded again, not much fun for the birds, although they all seem to dry out pretty quickly as we are still getting warm sunny days with temperatures around 28C or more. Lovely.
I want to change the turkey house and make it a little higher as they are growing so fast, but I haven't any materials at the moment, I may have to improvise - as usual.
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| waiting for more food - they are so greedy. |
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| Humphrey decided to nibble some orange tree leaves |
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| Spock and Humphrey |
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| Sunset over Sa Pobla |
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