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...

Monday, June 27, 2011

New kid still here and more, not to mention the b-day surprises!!






So the officially named Pici is doing all right, except still being incredibly little, especially compared with today's even newer arrival, not yet named, of Bambi - at least three times bigger. It stood, run about, found mother straight away. It is beautiful and looks weeks old, it's mother must have thought so as buggered off in the afternoon, leaving the newborn alone to fend for itself against geese and suspicious mum of Pici. So much about goats.

Going back to my last trip to Budapest, I was just chatting to Marta, when out of the blue Szonya MegaDrew appeared! The first Big Birthday (60 on the 29th) surprise, first of many!
We had a lovely time, met up with Edit and Juci (nieces) and aunt,
returned to Kiskassa together, just in time to pick loads more black cherries and use them with raspberries as base for trifle.
Saturday - milling about together, cooking, eating and the pensioners' birthday afternoon for me. I ordered pizzas just to be different, making goosefat butties with red onions for backup, we expected a few to be suspicious about the foreign fare - but everyone seemed to have a go at the pizzas with gusto, it went well.

Sunday started with me being presented with birthday surprise no 2: an Amazon Kindle! Alan reckons that will stop me stacking up more and more books... it is fantastic! Of course I'll have to get used to it, like is the case with such super tech wonders...
Anyway, I had a little sleep in the afternoon. As I woke up, Alan called me to look at something weird outside... and there walked all the Budapest old girls! All to join the bogrács cooking singlehandedly conducted by Drew. But before that - another incredible present - a bicycle! I used up all the adjectives for the Kindle - just imagine something shiny and sophisticated...
with 7 gears and basket. I refused sit on it with all the spectators - I haven't sat on one since I run over some natives in
Nepal with one (or this is how Alan tells that story). So again, I need to familiarise with It in private... Picture follows when I manage to conquer my awe... also Marta presented a present from Lois, beautiful Szamos chocolate basket that was stripped bare in no time... (and don't forget the umbrella!)

The bogrács turned out good (all had gone!), and it was a very pleasant gathering, a perfect evening, including an impromptu
little performance by some of the village belly-dancers, when Timi and co arrived from another engagement.
Alas, today everyone abandoned us... and the news this evening: our council decided to dissolve itself... now that is a cliffhanger, isn't it!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

surprise surprise!!



we got an extra little goat - still a bit wobbly, but hope it'll make it. Delivered by white goat that was sold us by the same guy, who sold us the suspect sheep. We were told both goats might be pregnant, but we were skeptical - but looking at Bambi's enlarged teats just recently, I wondered - and there goes the other one. dropping this tiny thing this morning - its sibling was born dead a bit later. No picture until we are sure its a survivor. It looked very doubtful at first, but Alan reported (I travelled to Budapest with my sister for a few more days with my mother) that little wobbly managed to stand up and suckle from those suspect 3 small teats of small white mother goat. Very unusual, and reason for Alan's suspicion that we were cheated. Bambi is much bigger, and we expect more and stronger arrivals any time now... no pictures until all is sure! Keep our fingers crossed for milk and cheese again! We have 2 small pieces left from the last lot being now about 9 month old, smelling like old parmesan and very good grated.
Maybe there are new mutant mosquitoes here in Budapest - ones without making noise, I am definitely bitten by something here, typing away on little Kifli on the balcony at my mum's.
Instead of little goat pictures you get the drawings of my aunt Edit, about her grandparens - my greatgrandparents, who owned a little grocery shop in Budapest. Grandad is doing a house delivery.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Kikassa Smallballs






that is the tradename for the spinach/chard/egg creation, deep fried, that happened today.
Sorry Dad - talking about food today, but at least I did not photo it... very nice if I may say so.

Mayor is back from holiday and the organisation for the Village Days - Festival of Light - is going on with rigour. Please note: 12/13/14 August!!
there will be art/objects exhibition linked to the history of the village, ball, hot air balloon, and tons of other mostly cultural entertainment at the newly cleared field behind the culture house.

The program can accommodate any number of guest artists, including performers and exhibitors -
bed and food is the payment, sorry like the rest of the globe - the village has to economise...

Weird but lovely thing: so far there are no mosquitoes at all this year, should we be worried? There are swallows, if less in numbers, but there are plenty of frogs/toads.

We had our first wheat harvest - Alan sowed some last autumn to a part of the field, and it come up nicely. After being cut and turned and gathered, it was all chopped up with our ancient szecskavágó 9see photo) on one of the hottest days so far. Once we worked out how to do it, it was quite fun... The product was packed into sacks and will be used as feed for the goats and sheep.

Photos also show a tray of drying cherries, one of the cherry trees we planted looking good,
and the usual suspects, some more photogenic than others...

Friday, June 10, 2011

sumer works







these are the last portion taken from Lois's photos; Shawn, the sheep, close - up. (presently she has even less wool, and Alan is getting better at the shearing business, the main thing is the tool sharpening technique). A Zsolnay (Gyugyi) exhibition picture, the solar shower, the community centre, where the pensioners' club, the doctor's surgery and other services of Kiskassa village dwell - it used to be the school.

News - Kálmán bácsi - he who frightened us no end by falling off our loft 6 years ago - died (of unrelated causes I hasten to add). he was outstandingly healthy until this last year, when he became fragile and lost his lust for life. He'll be missed, just like Ilonka néni, who also left this world a few months ago, there was a very large funeral, she was a very popular, lovely person. She was ill for a long time.

The mayor is on a well-earned holiday, besides a few formal meetings about electing a head-master (only one candidate and she didn't make a great impression on me so far, but who am I to rock the boat...) there isn't a lot going on in local public life.

The wall that shed it's render has been expertly fixed, and now there is a place for a door, which makes that large area next to the garage more usable. Also Master Obermayor's able workforce levelled (re-concreted) the car-port, looks more tidy, for sure. There is only a small roof job to do next week, and we can breathe with relief - all done for now.

We actually had a few guests - just in the midst of the building work, of course, a Japanese girl, who was catching up on her sleeping while here, and a Czech couple on the way to Bosnia - they'll come again on their way back home.

we had an odd hm - not young - couple here for 2 days, Kata was addicted to picking and shelling peas,Dave insisted on helping Alan move the clay/dirt mountain produced by the builders, - and - we were paid for letting them work!!! Though I did feed them with a well-turned-out goat curry amongst other things... Thank you again, Kata and Dave, nice people.
That's it! We should just choose the wwoofers who are prepared to pay us for the pleasure of working here! As we have very few hostel guests but 2,3 or more wwoofer applications per day, maybe this is something to consider...

My mum is stable at home, when not in pain, she manages to enjoy herself albeit on a different level than before, she is not the same person now, which is hard to get used to, though she does have the character traits -
child becomes an adult and again a child... she is lovely, recognising loved ones with such a pleasure, full of kisses and humour, and all that energy to re-arrange things to her liking.

The garden is beautiful, with new kohlrabi, peas and stoned cherries in the long-suffering freezers, also a good lot of the cherries being dried in the solar drier. But we were eating
probably as much as we processed (well, mostly me). There is also decent strawberry this year and the raspberries are just getting ready.
There are immense amounts of gigantic lettuces - of course they do their thing in the same time, no matter how carefully and periodically were that planted.

There were a few storms, but we could do with more rain, the soil is getting very dry.
Today is absolutely perfect, not as hot as has been, but 25C with a pleasant breeze.
Alan used the stones/etc from the building work to make a path to the repaired steps up the hill, it looks good, I will make a picture, promise...

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

more lois's pics






for content and more pics see last post(s). The one that is not our place, is a Pécs city wall that took Lois's fancy. And I have no idea who is the fat old lady on the picture doing the gulyás masterclass. The weird room is a corner of The Old Stable. The rest can be guessed...