Yes, I know its late but ....

Viki is in England for a week and I'm doing everything ........

On the 24th I finally got all the spray irrigation fitted for the feed crops. On the 25th we had the tractor round again to plant clover and maize for feed crop. We should get 5 cuts a year out of the clover and the maize is good for chickens and sheep.

We turned the irrigation on and Andreas was satisfied that it would do the trick. He drove out and a weak link in the irrigation system blew. Couldn't do anything until the next day.

The pig is still pregnant

 Irrigation working again !

Pig killing

Georgos came round last night and we went to the pig field. He took some mulberry leaves and threw them on the ground in front of him. The pigs came to eat them and in a split second he had put a 12 bore cartridge right between the male pigs eyes. He then cut the main artery and decapitated it.

I helped him to get it up onto a hook hung from the mulberry tree and he ad it skinned and gutted in about half an hour.

We then took it to the house where it was wrapped in a sheet to protect it from flies and left hanging to bleed dry. Total cost 20 euros.

Wow. That was an experience.

To avoid upsetting anyone, this is what it looked like this morning, in the bag, as it were.

Took it to the butchers after buying the sprayers for the field and a quick trip to Chania for a "big" shop. 15 euros to turn it into 46 kilos of bite sized pieces. The hard part was putting all the bits into freezer bags.

Wow. Last entry was the 8th and its the 21st now. Lots to catch up with.

The pig is pregnant ! This has resulted in a frantic search for someone with a gun who can dispatch the male before he eats the piglets. My man is coming around at about 17.00 this afternoon  and then we just need to butcher it and get it in the freezer.

We built a new chicken cage/thing to keep the free range eaters safe at night. Blood (lots!), sweat and tears resulted in this effort:

All my own work........

And then there was the matter of fencing (another 50 metres) off the lower field for the chickens and as an extra paddock for Banna. This proved useful a few days later when Banna decided that an acre of grazing wasn't enough and knocked down the fence from the main field to the feed crop to help himself to the contents. 

Dave enjoys a pint and some pub grub after a hard day putting up fencing. Obviously we also have to be there to stop him getting into any fights or drinking too much.

Irrigation is a big headache in a climate like this and we finally got round to piping up the vegetable plot to the main system. It is already making a big difference and the veg is looking good. 

So far we have planted potatoes, onions, spring onions, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, celery, tomatoes (cherry and plum), dill, red peppers, chili peppers, melons, beetroot, aubergine, basil, mint, marjoram, oregano, sage, chives, coriander and a blueberry bush.

 The small herb pots

Today we had a visit from Andreas (Tractor man) who informed us that we needed to sort out the irrigation on the feed crop and pre-install more sprinklers before we put in the clover seeds. By turning off (thanks Andrea!) most of the irrigation feeds we can get enough pressure to operate the sprinklers. A bit labour intensive every week when we have to water the lemon, grapefruit, orange and avocado trees, but it seems to work.

Oh, and we need double the amount of seed that the suppliers told us and we will also plant maize for feed.

He will return on Thursday with the tractor. 

Hopefully our friend Gavrili will be around tomorrow to look at the water pump which refuses to work so that we can draw water from the river again. 

In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do, and a dose of tennis elbow has appeared from nowhere.


Ouch.

Rain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rain ! After 40 days (very biblical, dontcha think?) we finally got some proper rain last night and this morning. 

You can almost hear the soil drinking it in.

Rent day today. Manousos reminded me that we should water the trees every few days.

Where would we be without his expert advice?

Blossom time

Another week gone by and time for an update.

Last night we had another bout of force 10 winds so we had to repair the stable this morning. Banna cut his fly rug on the broken piece of galvanised sheet but, thankfully, didn't damage himself at all.

The sheep are now living in the sheep section of the field. Not happy that they can't run all over the place but ....

The spring blossom is now out all over the place and here are some photos from the field. Starting with orange blossom

The potatoes and onions are coming on strong.

So is the cherry tree

The first leaves on the walnut tree

 Grapefruit blossom

 Lemon blossom

We started to build a chicken coop for the "eating" chickens. More on that next time.

There is a rumour that we might actually get some rain tonight/tomorrow. Now that would be a relief.

First Simply Crete Holidays guests of the season arrive on Tuesday. 

It was my Mom's birthday yesterday. We went to the farm and showed her how brilliant we are. 

 A photo opportunity with Banna

Not looking bad for 84, is she?

More next time .......

Field control

The latest brainwave was to take the advice of Andreas (tractor man) and close off part of the big field into 2 sections so that we can control the sheeps grazing area. 66 euros later and a couple of hours in the field (we're getting good at this now !) and it was all done.

The sheep, naturally, are not impressed but they still have an area large enough for about 30 sheep and there are only 8 of them. Soon there will only be 6. Its nearly Easter in Greece.

One more seperating fence is now needed to keep Banna away from the vegetable garden.

Another 66 euros should do it.

But we now also need to build a shelter for the sheep and a new chicken run for the cooking chickens.

It never ends.

Interesting week .....

The winds of Crete struck up again and, having avoided  any damage so far, our luck ran out when a large branch fell from an olive tree outside mom's apartment and landed on the car. Thankfully it only broke the wing mirror cover but it had us worried for a moment.

The weather was weird. Like a nuclear winter.

We got 5 more chickens (for food) this week. We're trying to colour code them so we got white ones

The avocados are now in full bloom and the local bee population is busy cross fertilizing. Avocados are either  male or female and this is very critical to the trees. I thought it was a buzzing from the power cables at first but it was thousands of bees in the trees.

We moved the older chicks to the (disused) toilet block outside the house and let Banna wander around the "house field" for a bit of grazing. When Viki went to give him the evening feed his eyes were swollen and bloodshot. I went to Kalyves after the feeds were done to get saline to wash them the following morning but when we got there it had disappeared and he seemed fine. Viki washed his eyes with the saline anyway and we hope it was just some pollen or that he brushed against one of the flowering avocados. Avocado, and particularly the stone, are poisonous to almost all living things. It seems that its only us humans who can eat them. Thankfully pigs can eat them if they are boiled into a mush. Its the only way we can get rid of them at the moment and it does fatten the pigs.

There was a huge fire midweek in the area around Ramni. Force 10 winds swept the fire through a large area and there was considerable damage. Some people lost all their chickens and rabbits and many olive trees were severely damaged.

Having put some onions and potatoes in after we ploughed the vegetable patch, we now felt confident to add another row of onions and start planting the salad patch.

We bought some tomato seedlings from the suppliers and  made some supports from the bamboo which grows on the edges of the field. 

Viki made some more cages in the afternoon while I was at rehearsal with the band. We discovered that the old steel gate at the farm fitted perfectly as a support for the climbers (cucumber, courgette, pepper)

Nasurtians are planted as companions  for the climbers

 ... and French Marigolds for the tomatoes, along with basil.

And that is all we've done this week.

Its Saturday again. 

Gale force winds again

Its Friday. Again. Where do the weeks go since we took on the farm?

We still have very high winds and although the hen house (!) seems to have held up, one of the galvanised sheets on the stable came loose so we had to do a running repair with strong wire until I can (safely) get up on a ladder when the wind dies down. The weather forecast says that it should all be over by 02.00 tomorrow morning. It feels like its been going on forever, but its only 2 days. Every time I hear another gust, my mind goes to the farm and what might have happened.

The winds have caused all sorts of damage and have broken quite large branches from trees in the village. We have an avocado tree with a broken bough but seem to have got away without any major damage so far. 

No trouble getting the chickens in tonight. They were glad of the shelter. We let Banna out into the field by the house for some serious grazing today, which took his mind off the weather conditions.

Had a visit from our friends David and Elaine, who have a house in Armenoi, and took them down to show them the farm.

Egg mayo sandwiches for lunch. Very nice. This required 6 eggs, leaving just 15 to get through before we collect again tomorrow .............

Kafeneion time, methinks. 

Kaina and camels

We went to Kaina on Clean Monday for the camel thing. Possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced. It was all a bit "Wicker Man" and very obviously pagan.

I can't really explain it so its better to see the photos. The sheep in the cage was being raffled. The camel was made from a donkey skull, two baskets and an olive net, with mandarin oranges for eyes.

Weird !