Look what we found in the field this evening!

Posted by Rosie

Today we spent the afternoon at the village hall for an event called La Galette des Rois. We checked the heavily pregnant sheep before we left and all seemed fine. However, when we got back 3 hours later look what we found in the field .......

We think we had missed the birth of No 2 by minutes. Mum must have just given birth behind the hedge, heard us coming and thought - great, time for hay so came to the front of the field with No1 lamb. Poor No2 was left all alone bleating it's little head off and still damp. We quickly re-united the family and have put them in shelter for the night, out of the cold and to allow Mum to fully bond with her twins. Tomorrow we'll check them over closely, spray their navels and sex of the lambs. (We were too excited to check this evening!)

The ironic thing is however, that White Face (Mum) was the least fat of our three girls where-as poor old Droopy Drawers looks ready to pop out quads. Myself and Colour it Green have been wondering his Droopy Drawers or her exceedingly large Saffie Saddlebags would pop first and White Face went and beat both of them!

So - will there be any more tomorrow I wonder? As for a post about La Galette des Rois - you'll have to wait for that I'm afraid.

Hassle

Posted by Rosie

For almost as long as we have been in France I have been trying to claim the French equivalent of Child Benefit for the boys. This is something that, according to everyone I have spoken to and everything that I have read, I am fully entitled to claim. However, this is France, a country who could make leaping through hoops tied up with red tape and Olympic sport and get Gold every time. After a visit to the CAF office and umpteen letters asking for more and more information and translations of birth certificates etc, I received a letter before Christmas refusing me the Benefit explaining I had not given them details of my carte européennes de sécurité sociale. Now what that is I am not sure but they have never asked for it before so I was not going to accept this refusal letter without a fight. Thanks to a friend who speaks fluent French and who phoned CAF for me, we were led to believe this was our European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which I DID have when we first applied and as luck would have it I still had. Copies were duly sent off.

This week I received another letter wanting more information about this card but after over an hour to all sorts of people in England I am no further forward. No-one in England knows exactly what they mean by this card and if it is my EHIC there is no date of issue as is being requested by CAF. It may an E121 or E106, other forms we filled in when applying for our Health Cards but these are now with the French Health Authority with whom CAF has been in contact. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

So, Simon and I are going up to the CAF office in Caen on Monday (again) to discuss our application face to face with some-one. Wish us luck.

Gite Update

Posted by Simon

Works on the gite is moving forward and I have been doing the stud work around the walls ready for insulation and boarding. Plus I have finished the tongue and grooved timber ceilings in the bedrooms. The rooms are now beginning to actually look like rooms, even though there is still along way to go.

Also, this week, we have been getting quotes for the electrical and plumbing works as the first fix on these need doing very soon. I must admit getting plug sockets in will be a blessing as I'm getting fed up with extension leads trailing everywhere and then having to relocate the cables every time I move to a different floor or room. It doesn't help having some tools with UK plugs, some with French and other with 110volts, meaning I have three different extension leads.

Although in the gite itself the plumbing and electrics are pretty straightforward both, but mainly the plumbing, has an associated problem for our house which also has to be sorted. At the moment our water mains comes in through the gite and, also, our hot water tank is in there, therefore these need putting in our house. An upheaval we could do without but water, hot and cold, we cannot.

Showing the plumbers and electricians around has taken quite a chunk of our time up and not helped by having to get take the Ranger into the repairers to have it's crash damage assessed plus the computer decided to join the list of 'things to and will breakdown'.

So I had to take that in and get it repaired. I found a very good person to repair it. I took it in Thursday afternoon and collected it repaired on Friday evening - very impressed. SW Computer Services, near Vire, also replaced the faulty DVD writer and on his recommendation increased the computer's memory. So the computer is now running much quicker - pity he can't do anything for my typing though!

Spring?

Posted by Rosie

You certainly could be fooled into thinking that Spring has arrived but a quick peek at the calendar and reality hits home - although there are all sorts of Spring signs it is only mid January . I repeat - mid January and I am sure Winter has not finished with us just yet.

Yesterday, digging the veg patch, I was warm enough to shed my coat - the soil was lovely and workable and even dried out a touch on the surface. The birds were twittering and there was a rather annoying fly trying to divebomb my head. Looking across to the field I could see our three VERY pregnant ewes who could lamb at any time. Spring? No, No, No!! January!!

And on the subject of sheep, it is now a lot safer to go into the sheep field as we have moved Rammy down to the valley field. I really need to check on the girls without running the risk of what could actually be a leg-breaking butt from Rammy who has been getting more and more agressive since I have been feeding him with the girls. Hence his move down to the valley field with Lamby our bottle fed reject lamb for company. There's grass in the field so I don't need to feed them expensive hay or grain. Lamby isn't over impressed with the move and even though I have explained to him that he has been given a reprieve from slaughter so Rammy can have some company, I'm not sure he understands. His little bleets can be heard from down the valley.

Food outlay is also being reduced in 2 other areas - the pigs are a bit too portly so are on reduced rations, further reduced when they get a barrowful of weeds from the veg patch. Secondly, with the snow gone, the ducks are back grazing so they don't need as much grain either. No change in chicken rations but they have at last come back into lay - 5 eggs and a duck egg today which leads me to think that I need to search out some new eggy recipes for my 52 in 2010 challenge. Any ideas?

52 in 2010

Posted by Rosie

That is, we hope to cook 52 new things during this year - or approx one per week (which sounds less ominous like that!). It is an idea I saw on Colour it Green's blog and one that appealed to my love of cooking. My only worry is much of my cooking is based around variations on a theme - every stew I cook is always a little different from the last depending on what I have to hand in the garden/freezer or cupboard so it is not exactly something new. I won't add these "never quite the same meals" but maybe it will be alright to add something I have only perhaps cooked once before - a long time ago ;-)

Anyhow - we'll see how things progress. There's a list down the right hand side bar and I can already add aromatic belly pork, microwave sponge puddings and goat curry. And this evening Simon prepared these pineapple and banana fritters. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry but everyone was eager to dive in and only after the fritters had been demolished did I see the picture was out of focus. According to Ben though - I reckon this isn't the last time Simon will be making them:

"Yum" he said, "can we have these again please!"

That's a lot of pumpkin!

Posted by Rosie

Yesterday, when I went to check on the stored pumpkins, I noticed that the very top of the 2 rather large green pumpkins were starting to go soft - time to get cooking or lose them. So I bought in the smaller of the two and have been busy cooking today. So far I have made a large batch of pumpkin cookies (ably assisted by Ben) and a vast vat pumpkin soup (nice and warming for lunch) plus we had roasted pumpkin with dinner last night. That only only used up just over half of this 10Kg monster and I still have the rest PLUS the other LARGER one to go. Luckily we all like pumpkin.

Tomorrow I'll make some filo pumpkin parcels and I have a lovely recipe for pumpkin and sweet potato stew. I have also found, once cooked and mashed, it freezes, which is just as well bearing in mind how much I have. That said there will be no more coming out of the garden for many months so a stash in the freezer won't get wasted. And the pigs are happy - they get the skin and seeds which they love.

So - how do you like your pumpkin? All recipe ideas greatfully recieved.

Microwave Sponge Puddings

Posted by Rosie

I have just found a new use for the microwave and it is one that, in view of this current cold spell, may be used quite a bit - sponge puddings. A recent call out on Downsizer asking for quick and easy pudding ideas came forth with an excellent list but this one really caught my eye. And Google showed me that I simply need to make a basic sponge mix, add flavourings as required (I chose 2 tsp of ground ginger and some chopped crystallized ginger), pop it is a greased microwavable bowl, cover with pireced clingfilm or a loose fitting lid and zap for 3-4 mins. Leave for 2 minutes then eat and enjoy. Sorry - there's no picture as we had scoffed it all before I thought about photos.

Now this may be a bit of a surprise for the microwave as generally speaking it does not get used too much. Just for:

• Defrosting things - not with the defrost button you understand, but simply a place to defrost food that is dog and cat proof.
• Peas - they really do taste better microwaved I believe.
• Milk - warming up milk for the boys hot chocolate. (I too often leave milk on the gas to boil over)
• Single portions of porridge - easier than in a pan.
• Reheating certain left-overs.
• Baked potatoes - more energy efficient if the oven is not already on, but nowhere near as nice.
• Baked mini pumpkins - now they really are delicious.

I have to admit actually cooking a whole dish in the microwave is not something I have ever done much of before but sponge puddings will be repeated. It's fish pie tonight so there's a rhubarb crumble in the oven at the same time but I reckon it could be microwave jam sponge tomorrow. With lashings of custard of course!

Problems with comments

Posted by Rosie

We seem to be having a few problems with comments at the moment. We used to have a "Recent comments" gadget on the sidebar but that decided to stop working a week or so ago. It stopped showing any comments so we reloaded it, after which it just showed a white box. A very nice white box but totally devoid of any recent comments.

Now with Simon's last post we have no "Add your comment" thingy below the post. I am waiting to see if it appears on this one or not.

We did wonder if the problem was just with us and others could see the comments. Perhaps someone could enlighten us. We love receiving comments and like them down the sidebar in case someone posts a comment on an older post. Maybe it is a blogger-wide glitch?

All in all though, it's rather baffling and faintly annoying.

ETA - I have the "Comments" thingy below this post but it is still not there on Simon's last post. How very odd. I'm going to re-load the Recent Comments on the sidebar and see what happens. Watch this space ....... or rather the space on the side bar where it should be!

Snowy Normandy

Posted by Simon

Although it is cold and very snowy here the scenery is beautiful, especially when the sun shines. The boys are not at school, as it is virtually impossible to get out of here, so they are enjoying the usual snow activities. They are at this moment measuring the depth of the snow (13cms I've now been told) and just come in and asked if I can convert their plastic tennis rackets into snow shoes. I'll give it a go later.

Weather conditions are not helping with the building works and until I have finished one thing I cannot always get on with the next job. Also this means there are a few unfinished jobs around which gets a little disheartening at times. Site visits by plumbers and electricians are getting put back due to the icy roads and I'm getting to the point that they need to come in. But there is always something to do and slowly we are moving forward.

So it's back to work now - at least I only have a short distance to get to work and do not have to brave the roads to get there - I have already 'visited' a ditch earlier this week and had to get pulled out. And now have 'vehicle waiting for some repairs' added to my list.