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Hi everyone,
From a bit of a smelly Siminoc, the water has been off all week. Our feet haven't touched the ground this week, at least it feels that way, but on with the diary and you will see what I mean ...
Monday, Lew and John went to see Gege to arrange the planting of the maize for Tuesday. After feeding I checked on the little chicks, they haven't joined the feeding routine yet, because they are on a 'constant feed system' at the moment, as you pass them (which you do quite often, as they are in the building keeping warm) you use the can of food that is standing on the side and top up their dishes. Did you think it was a sophisticated 'constant feed system', mine is the best kind it means the new chicks are constantly being monitored. They eat from first light till I switch the light out when we go to bed. John has a constant light on his chickens, keeping them warm, which means they are eating 24 hours a day, but I don't like the idea of them not having a rest. Lew is looking for a red bulb (it is something to do with the red colour but they don't see it as a light), so I can put them outside knowing they will keep warm from the heat of the bulb, but won't be kept awake by the light. The chicks are doing well, and eating well, they have an organic mixture from my feed merchant which is supplemented with hard boiled egg and lettuce. Chicks checked, I went with John to choose the maize we will plant. As you will remember, I will not buy maize from the seed merchant because it is coated with a toxic coating which kills the birds. So I have bartered one bag of oats for one bag of maize with John, but it cannot be any old maize, it has to be perfect, no mouse eaten bits. We went to John's maize stack and he selected the best and we spent the morning stripping the seed off the cobs. I must admit John did most of it because he is so much faster than I am at removing the seeds. Lew had been boiling the eggs for school and he went to deliver the lunches, but they weren't there, now whether they were having the day off because of the examination Saturday or whether they have finished school early, we are not sure. While he was gone, I collected the 'piggy weeds', they are getting though a great deal of weeds at the moment. John had lunch and changed his clothes to go into Constanta. I had a parcel to post to Sian, which included several letters from her friends here, I give them a few days notice of a parcel going so that they can write their letters a get them to me, the cost of postage to England is too much for most of them. I have to go to Constanta because the parcel has to be looked at by 'varma' (customs) before I can post it to England. I put the film from the Christening in to be developed before going to town to buy Dan's 21st birthday present, yes I know it is late but it wasn't till Sunday I knew what to get him - a Queen CD - he was thrilled to bits, I left the choosing of which one to Lew he is the Queen fan, me in my youth it had to be 'Cliff'. Having picked up the photographs we drive to Ovidiu to drop the photographs into Aurica and order some more crochet for the cards and some crochet vases which Sian is hoping she will be able to sell. No the water doesn't trickle out of the holes in the crochet, you pace a glass inside or use the vase for dried flowers. Next stop pick up some tomato plants from John's aunt for his mum, hers and mine have failed. Not one tomato plant between us. The pigs were waiting for their dinner when we arrived home, we sat down to dinner about nine-thirty.
Tuesday and the discer was on the land before I had finished feeding, John arrived about five minutes later so that he could ride the tractor. Someone should ride the tractor to check that things are working right. By mid-morning the tractor had changed collected the planter and the maize seeds was being loaded, now it was John's job to make sure that the planter did not get blocked with the seed. I spent the morning weeding and collecting food for the pigs. Then John and I took the lunch up to school, but they were still not there, I think they have finished early for the summer, we can't check because Pastor John our liaison is away at the moment. We stopped at the market to pick up some vegetables and I saw some tomato plants, small, sturdy, healthy plants at 4,000 lei (8p) each. There were 80 in the box and I bought the lot 320,000 lei (£6.40). John was horrified, and said I should have told his aunt I wanted some yesterday, I didn't have the heart to tell him his aunts were too leggy, he will see the difference later. He kept saying 320,000, he thought it was a huge amount, last time I bought good tomato plants in England they cost me 50p (25,000 lei) each. On the way home we stopped off to pay Gege for the planting, I need a receipt, so it takes about half an hour. The tomato plants were popped in the seed bed under the plastic when we arrived home, I didn't have time to plant them today and they would be fine in there waiting for me. Quick coffee, then off we go again, I need to pay the internet bill, and sort out the feeds. Into the bank should only take a minute, no I'm in the wrong queue, try again, no back to the first, it turns out that I can no longer pay the bill at the local bank I have to go to the one in Constanta. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10..... SCREAM, another journey into Constanta. Well off to sort out the feeds, first to the place that grinds my own feed, I have two bags of oats (payment for some wheat we supplied last year), one bag of barley (I bought in the market when we were going to plant 'maslin') and two bags of maize (from Pestera last week). John throws the 50 kilogram (110 lbs approx) bags about as though they were nothing, I struggle to pick them up off the ground. He helps the guy putting the seeds in the hopper, then getting the feed from the storage hopper. John has advised me before to give the guy enough for a bottle of beer, because he doesn't get paid very much, so I give him an extra 20,000 lei (40p). Then it was off to my feed merchant to collect 75 kilograms of pig food, 25 kilograms of chicken food, 25 kilograms of chick food. Home for coffee, then feed, dinner is a long way down the line.
Wednesday and after feeding it is into Constanta to pay the internet bill, while we are in town we decide to take the coffee machine into the service centre, it is refusing to make coffee, I think we have overworked it. The service centre no longer works with that machine so we have to take it back to Metro, they give up and Lew has his money back and we add more money and get a well known make of coffee maker. Back to the internet bill, we get to the bank and I have to pay money into our Romanian account so that I can make a money order to pay the bill and each month I will have to pay the bill this way. A nuisance but I will have to arrange that when I have to pay the internet bill I do other things in town at the same time. We pick up a board for rabbit hutch building, Ms Bea should have her babies next weekend and she needs her own house now. Home just after lunch, I change and go out to weed and piggy weed, getting a bed ready for onions at the same time. John starts to clear round the trees where we want to plant the grass seed but it is soon time to stop for the day.
Thursday and the first day I can spend totally on the land, I weed and keep the pigs well supplied with weed, of course the rabbits have weed too even though they have their run. Lew and John spend the day making the new rabbit hutch and fitting it into the original rabbit run so that Ms Bea has contact with the other rabbits but is not bothered by them. I collected the first of the radishes from the plot today and the first lettuce. As the supply becomes more prolific we will be taking it to the families with access to their own gardens, but the odd one or two that become ready at the moment are our treat.
Friday and the weather men were threatening hail storms for the whole of the country. John said Gege would have been doing a rain dance since the maize was planted, so it looks as though it had worked. It was a rush to get as much as possible down before the rain hit. John wanted to finish clearing by the trees for the grass seed and Lew wanted to try and get the chickens out even though we haven't as yet found a red bulb, they are getting too big and active for the building now. Lew organises their house within the foundations, they have a house and run with wire over the top to protect them from predators. We have an owl that flies over and we know there are two hawks up on the land. The rain hits at lunch time and I run to get plastic to cover the birds, they are fine, but the rain means no more work today. Actually it cleared again early evening and I decided to get the onions planted on the stretch I had been clearing, if we were to get more rain they would be watered in. Five o'clock this evening the water came back on, the tank was getting low, so first thing, fill the tank.
Saturday it is one of the special holidays, so no work for John today. I haven't the luxury of a day off today, I need to get the tomato plants put in, so my morning was spent putting 80 tomato plants in, should have a good crop which of course will mean more work, oh, well! I then have a shower and we go into town to pick up dog food, yes I know we should have picked it up Wednesday, but it was a good excuse for a shower as the water was back on and the pressure was good. When we were sitting having coffee just before feeding, Latty came rushing in all wet, Lew went to investigate in the garden, the little pickle had bitten through the hosepipe, we now need a new connector to repair the pipe. When I watered the seedbed this evening I noticed I had three cucumber plants through, the runner beans aren't doing anything though and I haven't any more runner bean seed.
Sunday we woke to rain with thunder and lightening, there was nothing to be done today except the animal feeding. Even the pigs only came out for their food and went straight back in again. The little chicks are fine despite having several cracks of thunder right above their heads. I did some research on the net this afternoon, the protein content of our crops to enable me to make the best feed possible for my animals.
What's been happening in the village this week? Well we have had a tractor been around the roads, John thinks it is cutting the water off, but I haven't heard anything yet. Everyone that has wheat planted is saying 'Thanks for the rain' the wheat has its ears now and water will mean a good size ear. The teams of ladies have been out clearing the weeds between the maize lines. But people are wondering why we are having such bad weather this year.
Well I think that's all the news from Siminoc this week ...
So I'll say cheerio for now ...
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