Four chickens, a frog, a toad, a family of wild boar… and a dog

Four chickens, a frog, a toad, a family of wild boar… and a dog

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Never mind the veggies and the landscaping, we are now building up a bit of a menagerie. The four chickens are doing very well and growing enormously. Today it’s raining, so they’re staying in their house and not coming out for photos. When we were out in the garden they were truly free range but only as long as we could keep an eye on them and keep them out of the veggie patch.

But now we have decided to give them their own little area. So yesterday we built a chicken run. We still lock them up at night mind as there are foxes and other nasties around.

chicken run

After a year of having the pond we have finally got a resident frog. Let’s hope he (or she) finds a mate.

froggy

A while ago we noticed a toad in the garden as well. He only comes out at night and is absolutely enormous. A bit camera shy but we hope to have a photo soon. NB Little known fact (to us) is that toads don’t go anywhere near ponds until they spawn. And that’s why he lives under the threshing square and only comes out at night.

Recently we noticed that the next door field had been ploughed, albeit very badly. However after a chat with the neighbours it would seem to be the result not of a drunken farmer but a family of javeli (wild boar) who snuffle out grubs etc in the night. I don’t know how he knows but our neighbour reckons there is a family of six of them and they can roam up to 30 kilometres in a night.

ploughed field courtesy of wild boar

However, we have kept the biggest news until last. We have got ourselves a dog! Some friends of friends had a labrador called Maria who was just getting a bit too big and frisky to keep in their Lisbon apartment – so as from yesterday she has moved in with us! She’s a loveable two year old and although still very puppy-like remarkably well trained.

Thanks very much Vitor, she’s a darling and I think she loves her new home already!

Maria
Cobblers

Cobblers

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Finally we have started work on the area of the garden right next to the house. It was always going to be a problem area as huge rocks break the surface here and it is full of builders’ rubble. Anyway, we decided to grass most of the area (with seed from Jersey provided by Jackie’s dad) and cobble the area in front of the kitchen door. Cobbles seemed like an obvious choice as they are everywhere hereabouts including the pavements of most towns and even the roads through a lot of the small villages. They are also cheap. We’d been watching them laying new cobbles in a local town so knew exactly what to do. Almost. Anyway, we gave it a shot and here are the results. I also made a small gravel path to the pergola as well.

We used the old lintels and posts from the house as a frame and filled it with sand
starting work on the path

Brushing in the cement grout

Done! Just need to let it settle and add the bench back
Now waiting for the grass to grow!

…oranges are coming along as well!

“Boa é a vida, mas melhor é o vinho”

“Boa é a vida, mas melhor é o vinho”

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It seems appropriate that the autumn colours come mainly from the vines; the fields around us are alight with their gold, orange and scarlet.

In fact this week wine has been very much on our minds for two reasons. The first is that I have started to make some wine for the very first time. My dad had this very old book on wine making, there’s no date but as the price is both in shillings and new pence I’m guessing it’s 1971. He gave it to us when he came recently and it’s full of the most wonderful recipes for country wines, and my eyes fell on quince wine for October – perfect. It’s certainly been a steep learning curve, and with lots of different stages at different temperatures it reminded me of being back in the darkroom.

First up was the making the yeast starter, and here I used the grapes growing in the garden. That went well and soon started bubbling nicely.

Grating 20 quinces (and how big is a quince?) was a bit of a chore…

The next steps had a few hurdles. I did remember to convert gallons into litres but forgot that the bottles I would be using instead of British demi-johns were bigger. I didn’t stir the mulch enough so after the first fermentation in the bucket there was a thick layer of sugary goo at the bottom. And straining the mulch into the glass bottle took ages, in fact it completely stopped when there was less than a third done. Ho hum. Anyone who has made quince jelly will know what a lovely pink colour quince makes once boiled and I was cheered up by the thought of making a beautiful blush wine!

Anyway, hurdles overcome, the wine is now sitting in the living room and gurgling away happily. I had thought it may be ready for Christmas – ha! It’s going to take months and months apparently so it’s a glass of rosé in the spring methinks.

So the other reason that wine is on our minds this week (more than usual) is that we went on a wine tasting course with Portugal friends. 10.30 on Wednesday morning found us at Quinta do Cavalinho where the owner, Paula Costa, showed us around her vineyards and factory and of course encouraged us to have a few slurps. So from a 5 litre bottle to vats of 50,000 litres it’s on a much bigger scale, but it’s still a small family run company.

There are 30 hectares of grapes growing of which 80% are for making red wine. The area until recently was called Ribetejo but the marketing forces that be decided that, in order to compete against big brother Alentejo, the area should now just be called Tejo.

The factory itself has taken advantage of the fact that Tomar, 3 kms away, was the home of the first Knights Templar (and a visit to Tomar castle is a must). Their wine is called Herdade de Templários and features the famous Templar cross. We bought 6 bottles of their branco reserva and then headed off for a boozy lunch with everyone at Calça Perra. Richard slept all the way home…

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

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We’ve been having the most amazing autumn days: cloudless, sunny days followed by evenings in front of the wood burning stove. This October we have had one day of normal rain and one downpour – otherwise not a drop in sight, we are even having to do some watering! Not that we’ve had much time to relax and enjoy it. Richard had a week back home on the Isle of Man (which saw me mainly weeding) and then the following weekend yet more guests, this time old friends from London. They left a week ago and since then we have been non-stop both in the house and in the garden, results of our labour to be illustrated soon.

The chickens meanwhile are growing very well both in size and confidence, they have found a way to get into the veg patch and want to try and get in there a lot despite a huge amount of land on their side of the fence. I think they have their eyes on the newly planted onions… full update to follow shortly. The beautiful dawns are one of the good points about getting up early to let the chicks out. Here’s a vid of them at eight weeks old:

One small step…

One small step…

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for a chicken. Well, several steps as the chickens have their first taste of the outside world. And how they love it! Chirping and chomping together they scuttle among the fresh grass and weeds. Getting them back in again was the problem, even the rain didn’t put them off pecking and scratching. Only plump beetle larvae tempted them home, I can see I need to get back into the compost and dig a few more of those out!

A cesta de Dona Laurinda

A cesta de Dona Laurinda

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Our only neighbours, Luis and Laurinda, are shouting distance away. I usually meet Laurinda in the morning when she feeds their ever growing mountain dog who, when standing up, is much taller, and certainly much heavier, than her. She wears a beanie hat and is never seen without her pinny on. She calls across Bom dia, Dona Jacqueline and then quite often she disappears into the house only to return minutes later with her basket. It’s always laden, really laden with excess produce which she insists we have. I wish I had started a photographic record. There have been beans, tomatoes, red peppers and lettuces. There have been strawberries, plums, cherries, grapes and then the other day a basket of quinces. And as always twice, no thrice, the size of anything we have growing. Some of you may remember from a much earlier post our ailing quince tree, this year (despite being pruned and lovingly rescued from the vines and brambles that had been sprawling all over it) there has been just a handful of quinces. Whereas, of course, Laurinda’s quinces are the biggest I have ever seen. This can only mean one thing – I’m back in the kitchen making more quince jelly and quince cheese. Delicioso!

Back to the veggies

Back to the veggies

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Although we’ve been focussing lately on chickens and relatives, the veggies have kept on coming. Only now are things coming to an end – we’ve had our last cucumber, the final tomatoes are hanging on and turning red (or yellow) and the courgette production has eventually slowed down to a trickle. However, we have made the best use of our bounty and Jackie has been busy roasting and freezing, pickling and drying a lot of the veggies ready for winter. Even the very few raspberries that we have carefully nurtured have now been picked and frozen one by one and we shall have enough for one final end of summer treat.

It is interesting that the cycle of fruit and veg has come round again from when we first arrived just over a year ago. I remember then, the first fruits we sampled were the pears and this year they have come and gone in a period of weeks and in a flurry of delicious pear crumbles. Also the quinces. Unfortunately our quince tree has had a torrid time but there have been plenty by the sides of various lanes that we have been able to purloin and process into quince jelly and quince cheese. Now the walnuts are coming into season. Despite eating my own weight in walnut cakes over the year we still haven’t finished last year’s crop. Likewise the olives which will be ready in a few short weeks.

It never stops down on the farm…

last of the melons and pears, first of the walnuts
dried chillies
what to do with sunflower seeds?
the oranges are on their way
Chick update

Chick update

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So by popular request here is the news about our four little ones. We bought them from the Saturday Ansião market – a bargain at 2 euros each. They are about 4 weeks old with ruffles of baby hair around their necks. They had all been de-beaked, unfortunately, but they seem none the worse for this now. They don’t cluck, they cheep. All the time! Even when they are snoozing (which seems to be a lot) they cheep, cheep, cheep.

Of course they had this wonderful 5 star hotel waiting for them. This has meant that they were very reluctant to leave the house and venture into the run for a few days, despite cajoling them with pellet food and cabbage leaves.

However, once one decides to enter the big, wide world the others are not far behind. But as soon as a dog barks they hurtle back into the house until they feel brave enough to give it another go. They have mastered the water and food feeder already.

We bought some more straw today for the floor of the house as the temperature is due to drop to single figures tonight and until they have all their feathers, in about 2 more weeks, they will still be able to feel the cold. Apart from snoozing, cheeping, eating and drinking they love sitting together on their perch inside the house, all huddled together. The main problem we have at the mo is that we can’t tell them apart!