I achieved the impossible

There are moments in life, when you need to take a step back and look at what you have achieved with a sense of pride. Most things I touch here turn to disaster, but miraculously I have managed to grow tomatoes. Now to some this may seem a common achievement, but to me this was in fact a miracle.

I have on several occasions attempted to grow different things, but either forgot to water them, left them in the sun, or allowed something with four legs to eat the plant. However, I was determined to grow something, and everyone claims that tomatoes are sooooooooo easy!

Growing up my grandfather grew tomatoes, and they were amazing, I remember sitting watching him as he spent hours in his vegetable garden and greenhouse. I hope that my amazing achievement will make him proud, as I still cannot believe that I have grown something, and it is edible.

I am also growing chilis and celery, both of which are also thriving, although we will not be bale to live of what I am growing it is a start. I have a plan to attempt a couple more plants/vegetables and see what happens. What is the worst that can go wrong, oh yeah they die and I fail, oh well won't be the first time, so here is to my first little steps on the path to self sufficiency.

Chicken Myths

Chickens are the strangest creatures, and not what you ever expect, and over the last year I have learnt a huge amount about their behaviour and how they think. I like many people had clear opinions of chickens, but they are not what you expect.

Chicken lovers tell you all the time that chickens are smart, however, I can clarify will complete certainty that they are in fact stupid. Like humans there are a few clever ones in the bunch, but I seem to have the dumb ones. The range of stupidity is incredible, and I seem to have my fair share of the dumbest chickens.

Chickens can't fly, or so we all think until they want something, and although their flight is not graceful, and they do not soar like eagles, they can manage 13 seconds in the air. This may not seem a huge amount, but when they want to escape, they summon all of their will power, brain power and endurance to clear the fence.

Chickens are often referred to as Mother Hens, but I have to say there are no mothering instincts in these birds at all, in fact I would say they even make me look like mother of the year. The worrying thing with chickens is that they will devour a whole tray of scrambled egg without a second glance. They also enjoy egg shells, omlettes, frittatas, french toast, fried eggs and egg shells. Yes, chickens eat their young, they are cannibals and love it.

With all this in mind, you do ask yourself why so many people choose to keep stupid, flighty cannibals!

Dog Biscuit Thief

Food is always going missing here in Casa Chaos, and typically the goats are blamed for every disappearance. As you all know we have caught Jack with his head in the feed bins on more than one occasion  However, this time it wasn't the goats that had been stealing the dog biscuits, and finally we caught the culprit.

There is often a bowl of dog biscuits left down by the orchard, in the dog pen, and even with no dogs around these biscuits were vanishing. Not quickly, not in one batch, but slowly over time they were defiantly going. No animal can get in to the pen without being let in, so unless the goats had learnt to un bolt doors, and close as they exit, it wasn't them.

To be honest Jack and Jill do have fussy eating habits, and dog biscuits had never appealed to them in the past. However, in Casa Chaos we never say never, and stranger things have happened, than goats eating dog biscuits. I was convinced that it was the rats, which would be unusual as they have been known to sneak off with the odd biscuit.

Yesterday the thief was caught on camera, and I would never have suspected her at all, as she wanders around looking innocent, not the dog biscuit type of girl in my opinion. Lucy was the thief, and stole the biscuits without having to enter the pen. As she innocently wandered past she would look to see if anyone was watching, dip her head into the pen, retrieve her prize, before wandering off to enjoy the meaty treat.

Lucy did this on several occasions and had a morning feast before returning to the pond and the other ducks. My only question is should I be worried that the duck is eating meat flavoured dog biscuits, or only be concerned when she barks!

Tolerance

Having animals you soon learn that you need to improve your tolerance, and that they will often end up where they shouldn't be, which happens a huge amount in Casa Chaos. I often find chickens by the pond, ducks in the feed room, and dogs on the furniture. However, I do draw the line at the bloody goat in my kitchen.

Last week my son was watching TV, when the typical scream of "Mummmmeeeeeeeeeee" was heard, now what could possibly have happened as he was sat on the sofa. The next part of the sentence followed "Jack is in the kitchen" At this point I thought I misheard, but no apparantly the goat had decided that my kitchen was ideal for a nose around.

My son didn't move from his cartoons and cereal  and it was left for me to decide how to remove a very heavy, stubborn goat from the kitchen. Goat wrestling is not my thing, and I would rather opt for the water option, but jack stood in-between me and the tap. Mexican stand off time, I stood in the doorway, Jack in the centre of the kitchen gazing around at what he could eat.

As I do consider myself to have more intelligence than the goat, I backed away, not to run and hide but to go to the water source in the house...the bathroom. I returned with water in a cup and stared at Jack, at this point he knew he had crossed too many boundaries, and retreated back up the mountain. Call me old fashioned but a goat in the kitchen is simply a step too far.

Vandalism

I cannot believe I have been vandalised, well in fact my nice new shiny wheelbarrow has been and the worst thing is I invited the vandals into Casa Chaos.  My wheelbarrow has remained in excellent condition since purchasing it, and it was never intended to be used as a wheelbarrow. Which is why I was shocked to see the builders using my beautiful wheelbarrow...to mix cement in!

I could not believe it, my heart skipped a beat, and for a split second I was going to storm over and take my beloved wheelbarrow. However, I remembered that people think I am crazy on a daily basis, and this action could confirm all of their suspicions. I had to stand and watch as the wheelbarrow was abused, and vandalised, taking no action for their cruel behaviour.

Every so often I would pop over to where they were working, they thought to check on them, I was in fact checking on the wheelbarrow. I cannot believe that they did not realise that the wheelbarrow was never intended to actually be used for anything other than transporting soft materials such as straw.

Finally they finished, and although they washed all of the cement from her shell, she would never be the same again. The wheelbarrow had gone from a pristine item, to a used, and worn workhorse, with scratches, and small dents. Oh well, it was done now, and I would have to face the facts that my wheelbarrow would never be the same again!

Recycling becomes epic fail

I have always been a huge believer in recycling, and have instilled this value into my children. we recycle as much as we can, and I thought I was being clever when I decided to use the shredded paper in the chicken coop. It is amazing how much paper one household produces in a week  therefore,  shredding it and using it seemed logic.

I have researched a huge amount on the correct bedding for the chicken coop, to make it as inviting as possible for the chickens, as I want them to be happy, and lay eggs. Happy chickens happy eggs, or so they say! I thought that shredded paper would be ideal for the coop, as it is absorbent  warm, and most importantly free.

People warned me that the paper would be an epic fail, but as usual I knew best, and couldn't see why it would be any different to straw, how wrong can one person be! Someone mentioned that the paper would stick to the eggs, but I couldn't see how this would be an issue. Again how wrong could one person be!

When eggs are laid they have a wet solution covering them, which protects the interior of the egg, this mixed with shredded paper is the perfect recipe for paper mache! The instant the egg is laid, the paper sticks, transferring every letter onto the egg. This didn't really bother me as I thought the eggs looked unique with their letters and words covering the shell. However, the paper stuck hard to eggs, causing them to become heavier, and harder to crack, this was an issue.

Also paper is too light, it flies everywhere, and as the chickens begun to kick out the paper, the vast majority of paper ended up on the orchard floor. I spent more time picking up shredded paper than anything else. The chickens were left with no nesting, and refuse to lay on wood, which caused a decline in eggs, and defeated the whole point of using the paper.

The chickens managed to remove all of the paper, and it ended up attached to the bushes and trees, making them look like a set of fairies had decided to play the traditional Halloween prank and toilet paper the trees. I could imagine a bunch of 2 inch fairies running around having a party in the orchard with my shredded paper.

This was the final straw, as I spent all day placing new bedding in the boxes, cleaning the orchard, and shouting and swearing at everything I could. My eggs were like lumps of cement, and resembled the kids school project when they had to cover the balloon with paper mache. I have noted this down as an epic fail, and we will not be repeating the process again!

Flying chickens

I have said it once and I will say it again chickens are stupid, not just a little stupid but incredibly stupid. Spring has sprung which means that the chickens all want to sit on eggs, and have their own batch of chicks. After spending most of last year attempting to deter this fact, this year I have held my hands up and said whatever!

So, I have quite a few chickens in various places on eggs, some we know about and others have just vanished, which means they are likely to appear at some point. Now, Mama Bantom is the leader of the chickens, the almighty wise one, who apparently sees and knows everything. I was told this by a wise woman in the village!

Yet, why does she insist on laying eggs 7ft up on a roof, this is truly stupid, as when the chicks hatch they have to perform a leap of death into the maternity wing. Now granted they fall into the maternity wing, which does save me a job of rounding them up, but even so, come on these chicks cannot fly. All that happens is they fall, now some survive, and others don't.

The ratio this time was quite good, she hatched four chicks, three are running around and one was like a skydiver whose parachute didn't open. Some would say the ratio was good, but I cannot work out what goes through the chickens mind to think, hey I know what I will lay my eggs up here and then get my chicks to leap to the floor, whilst I glide down using my wings.

Anyway we have three more chicks to add to the already expanding maternity wing, which is good, more chickens more eggs, but as we know Casa Chaos produces more roosters than any other farm in the land. Lets wait and see what this batch brings, and wait for all the others to hatch.

Peeing in the orchard

There is not a day that goes by when I think that my life is normal, in fact I have forgotten what normal was and have moved on to another world. Yesterday I was asked if I pee in the orchard, now I had to think about this for  a moment which worried me, that it was not an instant no! Anyway, this person was serious, and asked me because apparently human pee is excellent for gardens and plants.

Once you get over the gross factor, what she was saying actually made a lot of sense. Fresh, steaming urine is in fact packed full of high levels of nitrogen, is low in potassium and moderate in phosphorus.  Therefore, it acts as a fantastic high nitrogen liquid fertilizer, which is free, but has safety issues.

This subject was something that she was obviously very proud of, and went on to tell me that healthy people produce excellent quality pee. However, people who do not wipe correctly, are contaminating the fertilizer. Therefore, if I intended to pee in the orchard, I needed to make sure that I correctly wiped from front to back, at this point I was on the verge of sniggering.

She also asked if I was on medication, took drugs, drunk alcohol or was pregnant, it actually felt like a trip to the doctors, not a random conversation about my orchard.  I was informed that as long as I was "clean" my urine would be perfect. I did think that that this point it must be a cultural programming, which makes some people consider this to be gross, as this woman was in full flow about the subject.

I still was not convinced, but thought I would humour this woman, and inquired if I needed to pop down to the orchard every time I needed to pee. This received a look of shock, as she explained I don't pee onto the trees I pee in the compost heap. Ahhhh now it makes total sense, I need to squat over the compost heap and pee! So, if any of you visit and one of us are in the area of the compost heap, keep walking, do not stop, as you may see more than you bargained for!

Hot Potatoes and Pliers

I discovered the most amazing thing to do with a hot potato yesterday, and it truly showed how exciting my life has become. What better thing to do on a wet Sunday afternoon than remove roosters spurs. At one time I would have curled up on the sofa, watched some rubbish on TV and drunk coffee, but now I sit on the cold bathroom floor, with a rooster, a hot potato and a pair of pliers.

I would love to justify this statement and claim that it wasn't as bizarre as it sounds, but it really was, and something that everyone should try (only joking) Ok, so how did I end up on the bathroom floor, removing spurs, well that would be down to Google, who is God as you know! Don't worry we weren't just removing spurs, we were also cutting off part of AL's foot.

AL's foot has still got Bumbelefoot, and although we have let him out with the rest of the chickens he is hopping around, and cannot put any weight on the foot. This meant that we had to remove more of his foot, which involved our make shift surgery on the bathroom floor. After much soaking, cutting, soaking, oh and blood, we removed the lump.

Whilst sitting on the floor, I noticed that one of his spurs was huge, and digging into his other leg which must have been uncomfortable, so off I went to Goggle. Apparently, the spurs do need cutting or removing, and there are a number of ways to do this. You can either cut with a hacksaw, this didn't appeal, grind down with a Dremmel, didn't have one of those, rip the spur out, causing blood, nope had seen enough of that thank you.

Just as I was going to give up, I stumbled upon a lady who was looking for an alternative method to remove the spurs, and had used a hot potato and a pair of pliers. I had to read more, purely because it sounded so bizarre. You have to cook a potato in the microwave until boiling hot, ram it on the end of the spur, wait five minutes, remove the potato, and grab spur with pliers, twist back and forth, until voile the spur pops off.

Right up until the spur came off I was thinking what the hell am I doing, and what the hell is going to happen, but it works, it really does! In all honesty I didn't realise that there is a smaller spur underneath, so when the top one popped off I was shocked to see a mini one, but it worked! In true Casa Chaos style, my son wants to make a necklace out of AL's spur, can my day get any stranger!

Closure....

Diablo had been missing for a few days, he was never a wanderer, and since I ran him over he was terrified of cars. You never want to think the worst, and I always attempt to remain as positive as possible. However, there is a road close by, and the drivers drive too fast, but I had walked up and down the road with no sign of Diablo.

Sometimes the fact that you cannot find them makes it worse, you need to have news, good or bad to produce closure. I hate not knowing, and even if I have to face up to the truth that he is gone, I need to know. Unfortunately, it was my daughter that found our beloved Diablo, yes, he had been hit by a car, and had got to the bushes, where he had died.

We went to check that it was him, but with his distinctive markings, there was no doubt, I received my closure, and all I could hope that he died quickly, and without too much pain. I question all the time, why the cats are near the road, there is over 25,000 square meters of mountain behind us.

Who knows what attracted him to the road, and all I can hope is that the three remaining cats do not do the same. I'm in those early stages, where I still put out his feed bowl, and still wake up in the morning expecting to see him. The other cats miss him, and I can see Tazzy searching for him every day, why does life have to be so cruel! RIP Diablo x

Finn and Jake

Children's logic amuses me, and there are many things that my son says that make me chuckle, but deep down he makes a huge amount of sense. We were discussing the ducklings that died the other day, and he claimed to know the reason why. Now, knowing my son this could be numerous reasons, including what was on the TV, and the day of the week.

However, he stated that the ducklings had died as they didn't have names, which caused me to consider this. It is true that people name sick babies as soon as possible to give them an identity, so maybe our ducklings needed an identity of their own. I don't agree that this is why they died, but it could help them in the future. What do I know! let the naming begin, and in true Casa Chaos fashion, I choose Dumb and dumber, or Flip and Flop.

These names were frowned upon, and my son declared Finn and Jake (kids TV programme adventure time just in case you were curious) so the ducklings were named, and before anyone asks I have no idea what sex they are, or who is who, but my son is happy. All I keep thinking now is please God do not let Finn and Jake die.

These two cute bundles of fluff cause me to run up and down the stairs at least 20 times a day as they have the inability to stay were they are put. They seem to spend the whole day attempting to break out of the nicely fenced area, maybe the Kray Twins would have been a better name. So, many times I find them on the other side of the fence, tormenting Jessica.

Famous Rabbit

Just when I think my life cannot get any stranger it does, and really why should I be surprised in the least as I live in Casa Chaos. yesterday a shout went out on FB, or nosey book as it is often referred to in our house, for a rabbit. The usual jokes begun about batteries, and sex shops, but on this occasion the woman in question wanted the fluffy variety.

For once the rabbit was not needed for a casserole, or breeding purposes, but to feature in her latest photo shoot. The lady who asked for the rabbit is an incredibly talented photographer, and she needs a white rabbit for her latest project. I was suggested by a few, and whilst chuckling, I messaged her to see if I could help.

All the information I have is that she needs a white, or nearly white rabbit that is friendly, and can be handled. Well Hoppity is perfect and once the rabbit head shots had been emailed over, he was offered the role. The whole thing is amusing, but very genuine, and it seems that my rabbit will be cuddled by beautiful women and paid for the privilege. There are many men out there that would love that opportunity.

So, whilst we wait for the date I think he may need a bath, and guidance how to behave when out in public. I wonder if fame and fortune will go to his little head, or if he will remember were his home and carrots are. I knew one of us would be famous, I just never imagined it would be the rabbit.

Taking water for granted

Before I moved to GC I took water for granted, it came out of every tap in the house, and produced expensive bills every month. Every year there would be a water ban through the "summer" months, and then it would rain for the other 11 months of the year! How does one country get it so wrong, when others can manage with the water that surrounds them on their islands.

Once you live in another country you begin to realise how badly wrong the UK has got their water system, and although GC has many quirks, they produce water all year. Tourists are often told to not drink the tap water, which they think is because it is toxic. In fact it is to make them drink bottled water and boost the economy!

Our water has become precious to us, and yes it does come out of the taps, occasionally  when it feels like it, and often a funny colour. we do drink bottled water but that is now habit rather than health issues from the tap water. Canarians have an amazing ability to hoard water, and the moment it rains the begin to pump and store.

The furrow is currently flowing through our finca, which is very quaint, a bit like having your own personal stream to play Pooh Sticks in. However, we fail to use it for the purpose that it is intended, which is to pump it out and store it for "later" When we first moved in I used to think this was a fantastic opportunity, but to be honest now we don't remove any of the water.

I have better things to be doing than rushing around to get the pumps working to pump water into a dirty tank, to store and fester until the summer, and then use this to water the trees. For some of the farmers it is their passion to steal/recycle as much water as they can, and we can always tell when our ignorant neighbour is pumping before us, as the water pressure dropped to a trickle.

Do we recycle water and ensure that we waste as little as possible, yes, but pumping water from the furrow I will leave to the locals. They feel it is their magic water supply that has been given to them by the rain gods, and this I would not want to interfere with EVER!

why do I bother?

I love living in Casa Chaos, but yesterday I had that impending feeling of why do I bother, as it was a long, emotional day. Death has become part of our lives, and although we shouldn't all be so flippant about it, we appear to have become that way. When I begun this journey, I had romantic ideas of everything being done the right way, animals would be born, looked after by their mothers, and thrive.

Another duckling was attacked yesterday, this time we knew what it was as the stupid creature wandered into the dog pen, needless to say it came off worse. How does any animal think that taking a stroll past a creature that is far bigger than it would be safe. Billy watched as his baby was attacked, and how it survived I will never know.

What I do know is that the little thing survived for a few more hours, and died in the warm and dry, which is horrible, but the only thing we could do for it was make it comfortable. Putting animals out of their misery is something I simply cannot do, which makes me think am I indeed "playing farm" as my father once said.

I begun to doubt my abilities, and thought is it all worth it, as I hate feeling the joy as these animals are born,and then the despair as they die in front of me. Even the children have a strange attitude to death, as they consider any time that these animals are alive to be a miracle. Am I turning my children into uncaring human beings, or realists.

Someone questioned my ability to keep animals yesterday, and asked why the ducks were not caged until they were older. This is a good point, but surely what life is it to be in a cage, I am no expert, and have never claimed to be, so maybe I am wrong. As I turn the page to another day, a fence has gone up to keep the ducks around the pond. Too late to save two of them, but hopefully in time for the remaining two to flourish.

Is Natural the Best way?

I have always considered nature to be a strange thing, and that sometimes it just isn't nice or fair, which explains why so many things are now produced and grown artificially. I was offered an incubator when we first moved into Casa Chaos, but declined as I felt that no one could ever substitute a mother to be able to care for a new born animal.

This has proven to be a bad judgement call on my part, and I now understand why so many people who want to make money from their livestock, choose to incubate. Over the year I have lost more chicks, and had more un-hatched than I thought possible. I remain adamant that Mums do know best, well unless you  are a chicken or duck.

Billy has managed to lose one of his ducklings, and when I say lost I mean lost, as it was there as I went to the school, and when I returned it had gone. Now, dead bodies are horrible, but at least you have closure and can move on. I hate it when animals just vanish, it causes me restless nights, and worry, which I do not need.

I searched for the duckling, but nothing, it could have been eaten by the cat, the rats, fallen in the furrow, run off, who knows, but it was gone! Billy was wandering around completely oblivious to the fact that he was missing one, I didn't expect him to tell me where the duckling was, but you would have thought he would have been a bit more concerned.

So, our four are now three, and I begin to wonder why life is so cruel, why it can't just let things live, and be happy, and why I manage to loose so many animals. Should I go down the path of stealing eggs and incubating them rather than letting nature do its job. I still feel this is not an option, even if nature is so crap at its job!

This is not what I signed up for.....

People often ask me why I moved to Gran Canaria, and although there are numerous reasons, the weather was a huge appealing factor. I hate the cold, I hate the rain, snow, frosty mornings, and everything connected to winter. Therefore, moving to an island that boasts 364 days of sunshine was an instant appeal. However, I have since learnt that the travel magazines lied, and there are far less days of sunshine in GC.

If you had told me seven years ago that winters here in GC could be cold, I would have laughed for a long time, and doubted every word. I should have seen the warning signs coming, especially when we moved to the Culo Del Mundo, where there are chimneys on houses, with smoke coming out. Where the locals great you waving a gloved hand, and bikinis are reserved for special occasions.

My favourite household items have become the kettle and the oven, as both give off heat, which I find myself hugging on a regular basis. I often tell my friends in the UK of the cold, and they laugh, no one seems to believe that I do not walk around in jeans, socks, boots, and three layers of clothing for the fun of it everyday.

The local people around me are used to the winters, which puzzles me why none of the houses are suited to the winter months. All Canarian houses leak, now is it because the rain in GC is toxic and melts through the brick work, or are the houses badly built. Surely by now they would have worked out how to build them correctly.

There are no carpets in Canarian houses, which is brilliant for cleaning, not so good for freezing cold feet in the winter. All windows are single glazed, which means that when the wind blows it gets through the cracks. I find myself resorting back to my days of being a student, where I would huddle under the duvet and put on another jumper.

I have decided that having so many animals in the house is in fact becoming a fantastic idea as the cats function as heaters. We have one that loves being under the duvet, and it is amazing how much heat one small cat produces. The only downside is that when they want feeding they REALLY want feeding, and I often wake to find a cats nose millimetres from mine with that look of get up NOW or I will kill you!

No matter how much you explain to people that have recently moved to GC that the summers are unbearably hot, and the winters painfully cold, they never listen. Often they think that you are lying to decrease the population, or have been on the Arehucas far too early.

The weather as with everything in GC is diverse, and although I may be sitting here in my three layers, and woolly socks I know that soon we will turn the corner, when the blue skies will return, and we will all spend six months moaning about the heat, dust and lack of air. Human nature shines through again, as every culture loves to discuss, moan and debate the weather, even Fraggles!

Do we Need a Boat?

We spent most of yesterday planning how to get out of the house without getting wet, as the water was still in the barranco. In typical human nature, other people find the fact that we are behind the water to be incredibly funny, which puzzles me slightly. A lady asked me yesterday who the hell builds a finca behind a barranco, with which I answered, the Canarians, she then asked who the hell would buy it, I replied, someone who doesn't like visitors!!

Lessons learnt from the first time the car was safely on the road, but we just had to get people over to the other side. We can of course walk all the way through the fincas and pop out further down the road, but that then leaves the walk back to the car. Thankfully hubby was doing the school run in the morning, which left me safely on dry land.

Our son opted for the decision to walk all the way through the fincas and be picked up, hubby didn't fancy that and walked across the water. He choose a shallow point and like a man walking on water moved swiftly across, with the minimal of wet feet. My daughter choose the same spot, but due to the fact that she could not bear the thought of getting wet, wore wellies, and then changed on the other side!

I was happily working when I got a call from hubby that went like this:

"Quick quick come film me"
"Doing what?"
"Just come to the drive, open the gates and film"

Bloody men, so off I trudged, open the gates and waited, and was shocked when I saw my beloved car approaching around the corner, and heading in my direction. He had decided that walking was no longer an option, and he would drive up the barranco, which was still full of water and into the drive! Why do men have to be such children, and take these chances.

Triumphantly he emerged from the car, with the flippant comment of "WOW, the door seals work well" I was so not amused, and displayed this with my I am NOT amused face! I also pointed out how the hell was he going to get the car out later. Hubby turned, smiled and said "the same way I just did, but with you in the car" My I am NOT amused face turned to a you are insane face, and all I could think about was I was too young to die!

How much rain???

We were predicted a storm, we went to red alert and waited, the schools were closed, and Canarians lit their fires, which is a sure indication they are not leaving their homes. As with everything on this island it wasn't as bad as predicted, however, the homes are simply not designed for bad weather, so we all leak. The first night the storm hit it was windy, and when I say windy I mean lift the roof off windy. Our old finca rattled, and moaned under the strain of the power behind the wind.

The goats headed to their cave, and refused to come back down, which was a clear indication they knew something was happening. Just as the skies opened and the rain fell, a chick decided that it would make a break for it round the orchard and into the barranco. Now I don't like the rain, hate to be out in it, which is why for  split second I thought Nah leave the stupid chick, but I just couldn't so off I went to rescue the stupid thing.

With everything put to bed, the gazebo tied down, hubby informed of the bad weather, and told to park the car out of the drive, it was time to ride out the storm. The next morning, devastation was everywhere, trees were blown down, fences ripped out of place, and animals missing. AL was missing, so were the goats, and McFly and her chicks.

Everything else appeared fine, wet, cold but ok, which was a relief now to find the missing animals. Eventually everything was found, but the goats remained in their cave, staring down on us all, with those knowing eyes. As the day went on the rain refused to stop, and I remembered why having animals in the sunshine is far better than in the rain.

Around 5pm the moment happened we had been waiting for all day, we heard a rumble, the ground shook, and the barranco filled. We were prepared this time, the car was out of the drive, and we didn't have to go anywhere, oh apart from the fact that my daughter was out walking the dogs. She was on one side, we were on the other, a long walk for her to get home!

Lessons are never easy!

Lessons can be hard, and living in casa chaos we know that life is often never easy. There are challenges everyday, and when it seems that things are going right BAM, life throws you a curve ball. Unfortunately  all of our new bunnies have died. I am no bunny expert but I feel that a lack of care from two small people contributed to their death.

The rabbits are the children's responsibility, and too be honest they are usually very good. However, there were some issues last week, and food, water, bedding, you know the essential things were missed for a few days. Do I think that this was 100% the reason the bunnies died, no not at all, but I do feel that it contributed in some way.

Needless to say there was shouting, there were many stern words said, and hopefully they both know that their behaviour has consequences. I am quite harsh on my children, but they are both of an age where they can face facts, that all of these animals rely on us to survive and flourish.

Picking dead bunnies out the box was not nice, and never a job that anyone likes to do, but in many ways it was a learning curve for all of us. The children, hopefully, now understand that they have to be aware of what needs feeding and caring for, and I need to remember that they are children, and will forget things.