Mixed Emotions

Alongside having no time to do anything at the moment, I have days when I am incredibly happy and other days when I am so sad. Now either I am going through the menopause, which I am hoping is not happening just yet or I am human after all!

Although I am so happy about the new finca, the possibilities, the potential, and everything it will bring, I am sad to be leaving the safety, security and warmth of Casa Chaos. I have learnt so much about my self in the last few years, and also learnt so much about everything!

As they say all good things come to an end, and I think I could deal with it better it everyone didn't seem so happy to see me go!! Ok, the neighbours aren't dancing in the streets, but they also do not seem bothered about my departure. People only seem interested in when I am going so they can move in, and other people are concerned about their mango sales.

As you can tell I am having a sad day, where I will wander round the empty rooms, and reflect on my life. However, it won't take me long to bounce back, as the sun is shining, the chickens are laying and the views in the new finca are amazing!

Wombling

The whole family are huge believers in recycling, which is excellent to see, and even the kids make an effort to ensure that everything we can is recycled. This enthusiasm often spills over into larger things, and my kids consider if something isn't on someone's property they can recycle it.

Now some may say this is not recycling, however, as the Wombles claimed, "Make good use of bad rubbish" that is exactly what we are doing! So, alongside recycling the other favourite phrase in our lives is Wombling. I can often be found sending my children off to womble, in a similar way to Fagin in Oliver!

Building materials are an item that we womble often, and if we see something laying around, it typically ends up being thrown in the back of the car. So, when I was in the new kennels yesterday peering down the sheer drop that is the mountain behind us and spotted some wood I got excited. 

My daughter refused to climb down and get the wood, with some pathetic excuse of endangering her life...or something similar. However, the offer of 5€ to go and get the wood, made my son move the fastest I have seen him move all year. Within a short space of time, he was down the mountain, manoeuvring like a mountain goat!

After finding numerous other items, such as gutters, metal, fencing, oh and some goat skulls (don't ask) he had the wood, and was passing t back up to us. Another successful wombling mission completed.....and just to be clear no child was harmed or injured during this recycling episode! 

Starting Again

Every day when I have to build something at the new finca, it feels as if we are starting again at ground zero. When we arrived at Casa Chaos everything was here, we simply adapted or added to the existing infrastructure. It is so much harder when you have nothing to begin with.

So, far we have neglected building our own house to ensure that the chickens had somewhere to live. The concept is that the animals cannot be moved until they can all be housed. This is a huge task, and one that is taking its toll daily on everyone. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel and for once it is not a train heading for me.

Slowly things are coming together, the chicken area is complete, and we have eggs woohoo! The dog pens are slowly getting built, the duck house is 99% finished, and the pond has begun to be dug. Even blocks are being laid for the house, so we may actually have walls and a roof before we move.

As usual a huge proportion of this work is falling at my husbands feet, and although I say it often, I do not say it enough he is amazing. On very little sleep and too much work he is achieving the impossible. We are determined to make the new place incredible, a home for the rest of our lives, now all we need is a name for the new finca....

Peacock for Christmas Dinner!

There are many words in the Spanish language that sound similar to others, and these typically ensure that moments of embarrassment are reached. This is especially true when the accent is stronger, or I am tired, or I just cannot be bothered to listen.

Yesterday, we were having a conversation with a Spanish guy, who had an incredibly strong accent, so it took all my listening powers to keep up. He was talking about cheap animals, and where I could get chickens, pigs and what I thought he said was Pavo, which is turkeys.

I commented that we had considered getting these before, but yet again it was now the wrong time of year. He looked puzzled, and asked why it was the wrong time of year. I pointed out that typically they were only eaten at Christmas time, and he looked really shocked.

The guy carried on the conversation looking puzzled, and was really curious as to why we ate these birds. I still had no idea that we were in fact talking about two different birds. He had actually said Pavo Real, which is a peacock. No bloody wonder he thought I was crazy, and roasting peacocks for Christmas dinner.

Eventually it came out that we were in fact speaking about two different birds, he looked relieved, and I felt stupid AGAIN. This was not the first time, and I am damn sure it will not be the last! Note to self, concentrate more when speaking about what we eat to strange men!

What day is it?

Everyone that owns animals will know that December the 25th is just like any other day!. I am sure that I read someone that it is a special day where people take the day off, sit around doing nothing, and eat far too much. However, here in Casa Chaos is just another day.

So, with that said we wish you a Merry Christmas, and hope that you get to do all those things that are written about! For us it is a chase some chickens, feed some ducks, clean out some dogs kinda day! Oh and chase a rabbit around the drive it seems...

P.s progress on the new finca is slooooooooooow....and as you all know I have very little patience! However, I was building a wall the other day, so go me...and all those builders that quoted stupid money, and laughed when I said I would build it myself....as my son would say "In your face!"

Mid Life Crisis

Most people when they have a mid life crisis buy a sports car or a yacht, travel the world, or get a younger partner. me, well I decide to buy a goat shed in the middle of a field. Follow your dreams they say, it will all be easy they say, yeah right.....they don't appear to know my life!

So, for those of you that do not know, we are relocating to a huge plot of land, with a couple of goat sheds and not a lot else! Since the "leaf" incident things have been tense here. The small minded, local fraggles have gossiped, lied and generally been nasty. I had two choice fight fire with fire, or get the hell out, I choose the later, as I will not bring myself down to their pathetic level.

This has been one of the reasons why there have been fewer blogs of late, as my every move is commented on, and also I have been busy building and shifting. The new place is huge, and will allow us to follow our dreams and help the local animal charity more.

So, with the project in full flow, it has already been a hectic few months, with building chicken fences and transporting chickens. There are no mango trees in the new casa...yes I did breath a huge sigh of relief. I do however, have olive trees this should be interesting!

Raising Chickens is So Easy!

Like many I believed that having chickens was an easy thing to do, after all you simply throw some corn at them and they produce hundreds of eggs...right? Wrong! chickens are in fact time consuming, temperamental creatures that need more attention than every other animal.

The whole point of chickens is to lay eggs and while they are we all love them, however, this period of producing eggs is very small. Regardless of their living conditions, how many hours you spend making sure the are pampered, if they do not want to lay you get NADA!

There comes a point when you have to be realistic and understand that chickens have a short laying life, which means very soon they have to be culled. Older chickens need to go and be replaced with younger laying birds. if you cannot handle this thought, move away from the chicken farming.

Chickens are like vampires, they suck every last ounce of energy and time from your life. The hours you have to apply to your chickens is incredible, and often for very little return. There are no short cuts with chickens, and no days off, which can be a struggle. leaving chickens alone for more than a few hours can lead to a full apocalypse.

If you live in an area where he weather conditions are harsh, you will have even more issues. For example.......eleven inches of chicken......one foot of snow! doesn't take a genius to work out there are problems. Chickens hate everything, snow, rain, sun, people, animals, tress, leaves, etc etc etc and all of this affects their laying.

So, you need to ask yourself why you have chickens is it to dress them in little knitted jumpers and put photos on FB, or is it to make a profit. If it is the later, you need to remain level headed, and understand how to raise profitable chickens. If you don't then you will go slowly insane as the chickens take over your life!