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Hi everyone,
(Sorry we are late technical hitch with the past photographs that had been stored on disc - we couldn't retrieve them). Well I thought you might like a review of the year 2004, mostly in pictures in the form of then and now. Some of the pictures are not the best quality because they are digital photographs of ordinary photographs. Well on with the review ...
January, then the caravan and awning had just been moved from its original spot to a concrete pad next to the shell which will be the building. The first picture is the caravan in its original spot surrounded by sunflowers, we were here from the August to December. It took 20 men to man handle us across the mud on planks, up the plank slope to the hard standing that has been our home since. Then the picture of the back of the caravan with the snow, no we hadn't dug the path, that was how the wind blew the snow round us. (You can just see Sunny looking out of the window). There is a picture of Costel and Vale finishing the building just before my mum arrived for Easter. It was then two rooms; front and back. Then the picture of Lew building the awning after the canvas one had finally given up after a year of being battered by winds, pelted with rain, covered with snow and scorched by the sun. Now we have the building which has three rooms - the bathroom, the kitchen and Sian's room; the awning, the caravan and the foundations dug for the permanent animal housing.
Then the next picture is of Lew thawing the water pipe, it took two kettles of water to thaw the pipe so that we could fill the three, five litre containers we kept in the caravan to keep them warm. This was done twice a day, on average. The next picture shows the awning, the snow managed to get in everywhere, on the right is the blue toilet tent which held the camping toilet, on the left is the container for the shower. Now we have the cold water piped into the building, a toilet whose waste is fed straight to the 'hasna' (Romanian word for cess pit, and nicer I think), a hand-basin and shower with both hot and cold water. The pipe coming into the building is still a bit of a concern to us but so far we haven't frozen and we have been down to -11C, the three straw bales are proving to be good insulation for the pipes.
Harry was the only animal to come with us from England, Sian thought he would prefer to be with his boss, he has settled in well. He enjoyed the addition of Sunny when she walked out of the sunflowers, he had been used to having cats about at home. Sunny was a tiny thing only about six weeks old and from the photograph you can see why she stole Lew's heart. Harry was in charge of security and Sunny in charge of mouse catching. During the year Sunny has added other mouse catchers and now is chief in charge of a crew of seven. First to arrive were 'the toddlers' Womble and Panda, before we could get Sunny to the vet she was pregnant again. The pictures are of Sunny with the two kittens, then them in the basket. Then she added five 'tiddlers' to the crew, Gaz, Mac, Felix, Pilchard and Tigger. They were all caught on camera, but we thought we would remind you of just one. The tiddlers were caught napping on Sian's bed Boxing Day, well they had had an exciting Christmas Day. It is difficult to get the toddlers together now.
Harry could not increase his security team himself so we arraned to have one of the puppies of his friend Frunsa (not his but he was willing to adopt). Latty was born late January and in the first picture she is a day old. She came to us in late April, she has become a little character, and stands on blocks to be as tall as her adoptive dad. If he goes running off after the hares up the field she may be last in line on the run but she has some speed for her size. She can find as much mud as any of the others and her paws make as much mess as the bigger ones. Our webmaster made her a star, but she didn't let it go to her head.
Latty was followed only days later by Snowy, the white ball of fluff that had been born to one of the street dogs in the village. His mum is still about and has had another litter since Snowy, his dad died about the time he was born, he was a lovely dog that Lew had been feeding. We decided to adopt him as well, he would be company for Latty when Harry was on duty in the car. He had to have a bath, but he didn't seem to mind. Snowy has grown into a big dog, nearly as big as Harry. He is a loveable dog whose tail does not seem to stop wagging. He is usually second in the race for the hare.
Patch the last member of the security team arrived several months later. She walked in through the gate one day and refused to leave, she just sat there and slept at the side of the caravan at night. I couldn't leave her to go hungery and then one night when we had a down pour of rain she was invited into the awning to keep dry. Now she sleeps in the caravan with the other three. She has the nickname of elephant because she is a large dog, very fond of her food.
The last dog picture is of the whole security team, their noise does worry strangers, but those who know them tell them to shut up and push them out of the way.
Before Sian left back in August she bought us six chickens, since then James and Sam have bought us six and we hatched ten. The pictures show them in various stages of development. Several were cockerels and have been culled, they made good Sunday roasts. But the girls are kept to increase our egg laying stock. During the summer we supplied one of the children's homes with eggs. Now being a slack time for egg production, we usually have two eggs a day. The egg production will pick up again as the days lengthen.
The next addition to the family were Perky, Babe and Spot the pigs, they seemed a bit over-awed at being able to root about with their snots at first but soon got used to it. They stayed longer than they should and Perky enjoyed his couple of days away to his girlfriend down the road before he went off to make pork chops. He has been feeding us and three poor families for the past few weeks and gave us all a good Christmas dinner, roast pork being the traditional meat in Romania. He will carry on for a bit longer forming the stock basis for many of the soups and stews that will go to the gypsy school in the New Year. I am afraid he was not faithfull because during the night of Christmas Day one of our girls gave birth to five little piglets, the other girl is almost certain not to be far behind. These five piglets will be brought up to pork weight by us and our friends Nico and Gela out in the village of Pestera.
The last addition to the family were Flopsy, Mopsy and Peter Rabbit. They arrived with us at six weeks old and as you can see from the photographs have grown into nice size rabbits, we didn't want babies this year so have kept them separate.
Then the next picture is of the bottom field with the young wheat over-wintering; the wheat has been harvested, the grain sold to a local baker for bread, flour given to one of the children's homes we support and enough grain kept to plant the top field with wheat this year; the straw bales made and stacked, the ground ploughed and now over-wintering, the frosts breaking up the soil before it is planted in the spring.
The vegetables were planted in April and some did well, some could have done better, some didn't do anything. We have learnt that even if the hose pipe reaches the crops, water often doesn't, the pressure is too low.
I leave you with one of our beautiful sunsets. The farming year starts in October and the wheat is already planted for next year, but now as the sunsets on 2004 and we look forward to the sun rising on 2005, we go forward remembering the lessons of last year; hoping to help more children and families in the new year.
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