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...

Saturday, June 29, 2013

happy bday


yes, with cake an'all. Lovely, sunny but not hot not cold, just right. We had a few miserable days, but no mishaps, except the wwoofer didn't show up, in fact disappeared from the face of the earth, hopefully he's alright - Sven are you with us?? Anyway, it was a bit of a blow as we had too much to do. Erzsi and Tibi helped and cleaning the place up was left to the last day - well, today, when Jutka (my sister) and Hani (her grand-daughter and my stand-in granddaughter) arrived and we could at last eat my bday cake, made by Erzsi, see photo. Also a rather large lettuce, decent onions and Hani after her first day here.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Cherry diet


The heat suddenly had hit us with upto 35C, so keeping everything watered and cool, including our good selves became the continuous task. I just had my last early morning cherry picking today - Nora's and our new trees did tremendously this year; for the last few days I eat nothing but cherries after lunch, it seems to be a pleasant and resultful diet.
Fantastic wwoofer continued cherry processing while we were in Budapest, we have loads of jams and frozen ones. And black (sour) cherries are still to come - ready in a few days if this heat persists. Budapest was fun as ever, even with the weirdness of the frighteningly enormous Danube.
Jenny and Kostis Really enjoyed the sighs I think, we made a good company with Lois, had nice meals, walks. Managed to have my eye examination and the date for my cataract op is 11th August. It is all quiet now - wwoofer Sage left on Sunday, Jenny and Kostis on Monday and Lois yesterday. Next wwoofer is due in the next few days but was not in touch - maybe he'll still turn up, he is a meditating type, so might have been turned off from this noisy outside world... On the Pécs Sunday market we found a young robust looking runner duck pair, so now we have these two adults, 2 adolescents (one died just like that) and 4 little ones. The goslings are also somewhat diminishing in numbers and not growing much - maybe they need more green, who knows. We have 4 left' The chickens are all fine - the 19-group are like piranhas, frightening amount of food disappears very speedily. All else is fine, lots of cheese is getting made, we have now considerable amount of hay, too. I include my photos here for starters, including Lois when it was not yet hot, Alan and Kostas in farmer mode. In a couple of days I put up some of Lois's she's makes good ones.

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

From Mexico to Transylvania


ok, ok I've been busier than usual. Start with the present and recap some of the previous doings. We had guests - returning Anna from the Yukon, who remembered my food with some enthusiasm, so ended up cooking all meals for her and her companion. On their third day or so, a couple booked - and they came here all the way from Mexico! Via Melbourne Australia, where they had read about us in the local press!! Must have been the same article that was published years ago in the Sydney sun - or was it Herald? Anyway, all guests gone now and new wwoofer Sage is learning the ropes as we are preparing another 5 day escapade to Budapest, with Lois the old friend we have with us now since the 19th May, and with whom we had our transylvanian adventure!. But before reporting about that just an animal update - 4 goats 3 sheep as before; 2 geese and 4 Muscovy ducks, 3 runner ducks, nearly grown, just allowed free in the garden to do their job of eating nasty grubs, 8 goslings, ready to be launched on the back lawn that is a bit junglish at the moment and they share it with 10 nearly grown red chickens, and the lonely layer hen that was excommunicated by the 11 others in their usual place, plus 19 little chickens, same age as the goslings but small and very mobile. Cattoo is usually inside since the winter, and getting fat. Dogs are ok, Bonzo is going white rapidly. So. While we were away on this bus trip with 15 Hungarians and a couple of old friends and Lois, Orsi, a brilliant if anxious Hungarian wwoofer had taken care of everything, with the help of Erzsi So, the trip. We realised, that we are not cut out for group trips - we prefer to do our own things and prefebly, spend less time in vehicle and more walking around. Having said that, we did see a lot of beautiful places, and interesting sites. The b&b was spacious and comfortable, the breakfasts fantastic. The evening meals were in the village (Magyarfenes) restaurant, and also were good, with sweets and pálinka included. The rest of the group made party every night with guitar and soundsystem they carried with them; unfortunately, very loud ethnopop. Still, all in all (including Alan's trecking a treacherous Torda gap with inadequate footwear in bad slippy conditions quite traumatic in fact) was ok. So tomorrow we are off to Budapest, to show the city to Lois and dear Greek friends Jenny and Kostas, who are visiting us. so we are rather absentee farmers lately - but when we are here we are totally overworked catching up on things. I do hope that I'll have a chance to put up achy feet a bit in Budapest in between walks in the city. Age -is- catching up with us, I am due to a cataract op, with a serious test while in Budapest, the op itself probably sometimes in the autumn. Alan has a wonky foot since he did cramped it somehow while climbing that frightening gap thing. some transylvanian pcs - nice guests fixed my camera