Ecofarmer

re-settled in Hungary from Rochdale, Lancs, England, and into a little village, doing a bit of greenish farming hoping for a quiet life... but stuff just happens...

Friday, October 29, 2010

good and sad news...

... all the goats have gone. Big time farmer from Boriad bought them all yesterday afternoon. All happened very fast, local man Shumango let them know sometime back, and they came over the back roads as soon as the earth tracks dried up enough for their trucky things. We even got good enough price, and the goats will have a lovely time with 24 other goats on limitless fields...
all for the best. We keep in touch with the buyer, we might just get one milking goat and a couple of lambs next spring... now we don't have to worry about running out of hay and hungry goats running amok while we are away.
as I mentioned, Alan's allergy was too bad this summer to work with hay, and it was too many goats, too much work for a lazy retired me. Enjoyed it, done it, got the tshirt... still feel sad and guilty... will go for a nice walk, it is sparkly day with sunshine and full autumn colours, I'll try to make a few arty photos...

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

futile muscle-ache




had a lovely time yesterday cutting corn-stalks, got pink (well purplish) should do more exercise like that... Alan turned the hay he chopped the day before - alas, all a waste of time as it is again p&%*ing down, and it is also freezing cold. That's agriculture for you; a high risk business. Alan is looking into making silage,
I am not keen on the idea, I remember the smell...

Nevertheless as picture shows, we can still pick a handful of raspberries and the odd fig.

I made an enormous portion of pörkölt, the meat that Pali left in his freezer is in big packs, I had to defrost all. So we invited Pali and Erika over to help, but they were not up to expectation, didn't eat much really. Of course I had to make a largish portion of Hungarian style apple pies, as they were guests after all... and they brought ferraro chocs... so we are getting rather large, me and Alan, should fit well in with the Florida population...

For the Future of Kiskassa Public Benefit Foundation is up and running, if anyone wants to send it tons of money, I can send you the founding document and a bank account where moneys can be transferred...

Thank you for your interest and support kind person Costaslogh, I managed to remember my Greek alphabet, you are from Thessaloniki!! Great!!

Picture shows the new lake in autumn colours, the one we have next to the road out of the village since the big rains this summer; and the giant cabbage that must have frightened the goats, as they failed to taste it, like they did with most others. It is bigger than Bonzo, should have got him in the picture so you have more sense of the size...
Which reminds me: still no interest in goats, who'd want to buy now when they need to be fed all winter and there seems to be a severe hay shortage.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

red sludge and other stuff

For all those concerned, a late note:we are far from that sorry place. The more you get to know about the details, the more upsetting it is. There was no agency responsible for the safety checks on that sludge reservoir, which would have been dangerous enough even if it was just holding water. Human stupidity and callousness seem to be just so depressingly limitless. Anyways, you must have heard enough of this - think of those lucky Chilean miners...

We had a meeting - the new council reps (minus one who failed to turn up without apologies for this first informal meeting) - and Zoltán the new mayor who seems quite ok, so far... Thursday will be the official founding of "For the Future of Kiskassa" public benefit foundation, of which I will be a curator member...

anyways, we were busy before leaving for Budapest for 5 days; I was scheduled to look after my mum as my sis went for a spa-break, and also we managed to have a date to get a minor op done on Alan's neck. It turned out, that this op will be not quite as minor as promised - it will require at least 24hr in hospital and a longer healing period, so it is re-scheduled for after our return from Florida in January. Another check was done on this trouble spot,and it is still as innocent if bigger and more annoying, as it was 7 years ago.
still, we had a nice goatless time, Alan had chance to see some music events and to roam the city talking to unsuspecting visitors all over the place, getting annoyed when they did not bother sufficiently immerse in Hungarian culture...I had nice time if sometimes a bit frustrating with my mum, and the old crowd of girls managed to get together also.

we got back today - of course the goats managed to break out and chew the giant cabbage beauties and even some of the pumpkins the bastards. They behaved so well, even affectionate before we left. Maybe they know we now have to put up with them longer. I haven't mentioned maybe - we are obliged to try to sell them. With Alan's allergy getting so bad, getting together enough hay without losing too much money is difficult, so this is a bit of a heartbreak decision.

By the way: ZOLTáN PASSED BOTH PART OF HIS ORAL EXAM!!! This might be enough to get his degree accepted without considering the results of the upcoming written parts.

Monday, October 04, 2010

Mrs Most Popular





yesterday's election results for representatives into the village council:
Képviselőtestületi jelöltek eredményei
1. Durant Éva (Független) (91)64,54%
2. Bátorfi Csaba (Független) (75)53,19%
3. Csabrák István (Független) (68)48,23%
4. Cserni Zsuzsanna (Független) (67)47,52%
5. Kresz Ernő (Független) (67)47,52%
6. Mihályi Gáspár (Független) (45)31,91%
7. Szopoliga Csaba (Független) (17)12,06%
8. Sár Béla József (Független) (15)10,64%

Next step: The President of the World!!! (and I could do a good job an'all...!)

It was a bloody long day as I sat on the vote counting committee for the German minority council part of the local elections from 05:45 to 20:30 which wasn't as long as last time 4 years ago.
Anyway, we have now a new mayor, a Balogh Zoltán, an ex-policeman and businesman (security) from Pécs who promised everything and has Tamas (popular and successful ex-mayor) full support. Let's be optimist, he might be alright, but I hereby promise to be a severe scrutanier. and now, last trip to sunny Pécs before Martin returns to even sunnier Florida.
pictures show voting cubicle, sunset from the counting office and my kicsi kifli notebook and the nastursions (flowers, no idea how it is spellt).

Saturday, October 02, 2010

in-the-moment




report; just finished lunch of curried goat that was eaten outside in the company of Alan and Martin and a few sleepy flies and wasps.More pleasant than I expected, as it was rather chilly earlier. Now we are digesting inside, listening to radio 4's Newsquiz. Last guests left yesterday, including a surprise hitchhiker from Canada, who appeared out of the blue at 9 one evening and stayed fro 3 days. Besides getting a lift that took him from Budapest to Kiskassa, he managed to get one from Villány, too.
Other news:Zoltán got 65% to one part of his oral exam!!! Let's hope the other part will be over 60, I'd be so proud. I do think, that he's got a break-through, he's been speaking with much less inhibition lately.
The weird and junglish salad beans had been harvested, very nice. It turned out that the ones that were not ripe made good green beans.
Chickens and geese were moved to their winter quarters, Martin helped tons with everything as well as working on his astro stuff. Hm, should make notes, it seems that tons of other things happened... oh, we had the election meeting for the unknown business man candidate for mayor from Pecs, who's only, but strong advantage is, that Tamás, our old mayor supports him. I don't quite understand why he has to be a mayor to do all that investment he wants to do here allegedly. Or all those charitable foundations for the village. It is a bit murky. But judging from the attendance of this meeting - practically the whole village turned out, while there were only about 25-30 for Timi - he will be elected. If I get in as a council rep, I'll make sure to check out what's going on... A lot of people came up to me sayiing they are voting for me, but I wouldn't be very sad if it turns out differently and I won't have this new responsibility.
Pictures are from our afternoon in Villány and in the Minaret in Pécs with Marz and Sharon.