When the ground is cold ....

Posted by Foggy

.... then the obvious thing to do is to sit on your sister. Meow!!

Operation Pig Food

Posted by Rosie

One of the reasons we have Kune Kune pigs is that they will quite happily graze on grass. However, one of our fields isn't suitable for pigs, being too far away from the house and not being enclosed with sufficiently pig proof fencing, and we don't quite have enough grass with the other fields to feed them grass all year round. So we supplement their diet with bought in pig food but obviously if we can reduce this it keeps our costs down. Hence, Operation Pig Food:-

1. Cut grass - as long as it is fresh (especially in hot weather) pigs can safely eat mown grass, so our grass areas get cut in stages and the cuttings fed to the pigs daily. Various neighbours have also helped out donating their cuttings.

2. Weeds - despite my best efforts I always seem to grow an impressive crop of weeds. The pigs certainly don't mind my slovenly gardening habits and munch their way through all the weeds I pull out.

3. Vegetables - anything that fails, goes to seed or in anyway isn't any good for us to eat becomes pig food (with the exception of cabbages which Boris doesn't like!)

4. Sugar Beet - this year I read somewhere of someone growing sugar beet for pigs and found the local agricultural merchant sold large boxes of seed for less than 10€. Simon immediately set to dividing Boris' pen into 2 and dug over the half he was now kept out of, with the digger. After a bit of searching he found a rotavator and broke the soil into a workable tilth ... just as the drought we suffered this Spring hit hard. Sowing seeds would be a complete waste of time so I waited ... and waited. April became May and May became June whilst the area got drier and drier. At last the rain did come and I was able to sow the seeds albeit very late. Now, I have a crop of not very large sugar beets but the pigs adore them and I will certainly grow these again next year, hopefully getting the seed in earlier.

Charlotte and her piglets feasting on apples

5. Apples - Normandy is famed for its apple orchards and we managed to pick, what must have been the only property in the region without an apple orchard. However, friends have a large orchard and don't want the apples. Enter me with lots of bags and we have pigs with the apple sauce already on the inside!

6. In the other half of Boris' pen, as well as the sugar beet, I also planted all my excess seeds potatoes, all my spare pumpkin seeds and some Chou lapin (a type of kale for animal feed) - unfortunately I lost a lot of the potatoes to blight but I have loads of pumpkins and some huge chou lapin to keep the pigs going through the Winter.

7. Sweetcorn - when the local farmers harvest their sweetcorn I try and get into the fields to glean the fallen cobs which the pigs adore. Some years there are lots to collect, others far fewer seem to fall. This year there are few to be had but with all the other pig foods we have it's not a major disaster.

8. Bread - a friend's husband is a supermarket manager and from time to time they get the bread order wrong - enter said friend with a large bag of old baguettes. Neighbours also save their excess bread but I have to admit we usually turn ours into bread and butter pudding.  Sorry pigs but I think there is enough with all these extras to ensure we have some very well fed pigs.

20% off for Couples This Winter

Posted by Rosie

• The gite, with it's wood-burner and high level of insulation is wonderfully cosy whatever the weather is doing outside. 
• With a myriad of footpaths leading straight from the back gate there is some wonderful walking to enjoy right from our doorstep.
• With animals and birds galore, the area is great for wildlife enthusiasts and birdwatchers.
• Plenty of the tourist attractions are open throughout the winter and can be enjoyed crowd-free.  Some even have cheaper entrance fees.

Four excellent reasons to visit Calvados out of season and to make a visit in Winter even more attractive we are offering a 20% discount if the gite is let to a single couple.  This offer applies from November 2nd 2011 to March 31st 2012 (excluding Christmas/New Year and the Sat 11th to Sat 18th February 2012).

Normal Price per Week - £250 (290€) -
*** Couples Discount Price - £200 (232€) ***
For short breaks - £36 (44€) per night (minimum stay 3 nights).

Click here to go to our website and to download a booking form

These prices include the rent plus electricity, logs for the fire, bed linen (but not towels) and a welcome pack. All other terms and conditions apply and can be read here.

A Bit Drastic!

Now the gite is finished and we have completed many other projects, finding alternative themes for blog posts is much harder, especially as at the moment we are either doing mainly day to day stuff or finishing off projects.  We have also started reducing the animal numbers and butchering/preparing them for the freezer.

And this is when I decided that the blog needed an update.  Well I really didn't mean to make it such a 'drastic' post, but I have!

What happened?  Well whilst I was trying to catch a pig - and I can understand why it was not very co-operative - I somehow managed to do quite a bit of damage to my hand.  One minute I was chasing a pig and the next blood was pouring from my hand and I was in a lot of pain.

Encased Arm

So an unscheduled trip to the local hospital and then on to the main hospital at Caen found I had also broken a bone (little finger) and the tendon. Ouch (not quite what I said)!  So after an hour of surgery and an overnight stay in the hospital I am now encased in a plastic caste thing.

And I am like this for the next six weeks.  The main concern is the tendon as that had to be sewn together and must now be kept static.  The staff at the hospitals were excellent and there was a lot of banter about the rugby.  Though I did have to remind them that France hadn't beaten England in the World Cup for quite awhile and thought it was about time we gave France a chance (nothing to do with England's poor play then)!   And apologises to any Welsh rugby fans reading this but I had to promise to say 'allez les bleu' this Saturday or they wouldn't operate.  Hee, hee - that wasn't too painful!

So now loads of jobs are on hold and  Rosie is trying to make me a list of one handed jobs!  I can't think why.  I can hold a book, use the TV remote control, use the computer keyboard, albeit slowly, and walk the dogs.  Oh, and make tea. Seems enough to be getting on with for now - and the dogs are happy.

August on the Med?

Posted by Rosie

Actually no, this is October on the Normandy Coast!

October 2nd 2011

Temperatures over the last few days have soared to record breaking heights and we decided to take advantage of the fabulous weather on what surely must be the last hot Sunday of the year and headed up to the coast at Ouisterham.  It appeared we were not alone in thinking this and when we arrived at lunchtime all the beachfront parking spaces were already taken. In France most people don't go to the beach until after lunch and when we were there last week (thinking THAT would be the last sun-bathing day) we had the place almost to ourselves when we arrived just after one.  Today, the world and his wife obviously wanted to catch the last of the summer (autumn?) heat for as long as possible and the beach was the most crowded we have ever seen it. 

A couple of weeks ago we nearly lit the woodburner with cool days and positively chilly nights. When we heard fine weather was forecast we expected maybe 21degrees C. Never in a month of Sundays did we think we would see scenes like the picture above on October 2nd and temperatures nudging 30 degrees C.