Diary entry for Sunday 22nd May 2011

Good evening all from a gloriously sunny Siminoc!! It seems to go from one extreme to another here, lots of rain one week the LOADS OF SUN the next!!!
Monday
Up nice and early today as were trying to get ourselves into a new sleep routine. A lot easier said then done. It involves us going to bed at the same time we usually do (around 11pm) and getting up at about 6am with an afternoon nap during the hottest part of the day. Well today it worked and everybody was out and fed by 7am which they loved. The sun was shining and it was a nice comfortable temperature. Sian shot straight off round to the greenhouse to do her morning check as the chickens have somehow been managing to get into it and have a nasty habit of attacking tomato plants which equals a not very happy Sian. While she was doing that I decided that we would try and get the washing machine up and running as our supply of clothes were starting to dwindle and until now we really hadn't had the weather to dry anything. So 1st load in and were on our way.... Or at least we thought we were. 10 minutes into the 1st wash it was beeping at us and showing us some error code or another so it's a frantic search to find the instruction manual which unfortunately is nowhere to be found.... O well I hop onto the world wide web to try and get help only to find that it's only available in Romanian so that wasn't a great help either. After about 20 minutes of mmmming and awwwing we decide to take action and just start generally taking the washing machine apart until we find the problem which turned out to be a very dirty filter. Once we had sorted that, it was working flawlessly which was very handy as we were now both very wet and in need of clothes!! After the washing machine dilemma it was off to the Lucerne for me. Bori has still not produced a little goat yet despite showing us many many signs and personally I am starting to wonder if she is just enjoying the attention. It got to 2pm and we were both starting to feel the heat a little bit so decided to head in for lunch. Lunch eaten Sian continues works around the greenhouse planting her next few seed rows. Personally I am not a huge fan of gardening but she assures me that in a few months everything we grow will taste better then anything I could buy in a shop. Of course there is always the added benefit that a lot of what we grow will be used to help keep some of our less then fortunate families fed during the winter months. Add to that the fact that some of the plants themselves will be given to these families in the coming weeks to plant in there own gardens in the hope that we can start teaching them ways to cultivate their own produce in a more successful manner. For example you will not find a Romanian that stakes their tomato plants and as a result they get a poor crop with a lot of waste. Of course Sian will be on hand to give them any help they might need as I'm as good a useless when it comes to this sort of thing. I am learning though!! So once the greenhouse was watered (which now takes 8 watering soon to be many more) and the animals are put to bed we settle in front of the TV for night.
Tuesday
Up nice and early again which was a good thing as Benji one of our boy goats had decided to open the chicken door and let himself out... He can only just fit through it but that is all he needs. Again the washing machine was put through it's paces today as we relentlessly stuffed it with more and more clothes. Our 1st mission today was to tackle something we had been meaning to do for a couple of weeks. The dreaded fridge!!! Around December last year we noticed that it wasn't making as much noise as it used to and although we found it strange we thought it may have been the fact that it was already so cold that it wasn't needed. However over the past week it became apparent to us that it had just given up and what with the weather quickly getting warmer we decided that we had best get on and try to fix it now. So we pull it out and have a look only to realise neither of us have a clue what were looking for but then it becomes quite obvious what has happened.... MICE!!! They had chewed through the power lead and with no power comes no cold air so we quickly set about reconnecting the right wires to each other, bundle lots of insulation tape over it then pop it back into place. We plug it in and VIOLA it has life again yay!! So we put everything back in the fridge (after Sian has given it all a good wash) and look forward to enjoying a nice cold drink in a few hours. I head straight to the Lucerne and on the way out I notice that one of our smaller sheep Rita is looking very under the weather. Still I couldn't stop and take a look right now as the goats were making a beeline for next doors Wheatfield! I have no idea what is so appealing about it but they seem to love the stuff. Only problem is that the farmer who's wheat it is doesn't appreciate his crop being eaten so we have to make sure that they are watched the whole time they are up there. After about 45 minutes of watching them I decide to get them in and by the time they are all in the goats are visibly panting. It was going to be a hot one. Rita came straight in and led down so I mossy over to take a look. Nothing seems to be wrong apart from she has a slight case of diarrhea so we make her up some of our magic mix (honey salt and sugar) and offer that to her. She doesn't want to drink it though so we put it in there usual water bucket knowing that at some point she will drink from there. We decided for now all we can really do is keep an eye on her. Again Sian spent the day around the greenhouse digging lines and planting seeds or replanting things that were getting to big for their pots. Around 2pm it was once again getting hot so I shoot down the shop to get lunch only to find out that half of the road has been dug up! From what I could make out they are starting to install drainage into the village!! At the moment everybody has a hasnar which is where all there waste goes but from the look of it that won't be the way of it for very long. So lunch is eaten and the next thing we know we have Colleena shouting out the gate. So we go out and she has a HUGGGGEE Doberman with her. It turns out that it was our Canadian friends dog that had managed to slip it lead at some point and had been down trying to steal her turkeys and she wondered if we had a phone number for him. Truth is we did have number but we think he may have changed it since as we couldn't get a response. Still we went out and had a nice chat with her and made a fuss of this lovely puppy dog until she decided she was going to walk it back up to where it lives. So after she had gone it was time for feed and the watering of the greenhouse. We sat in the back garden for dinner and watched the sunset just before putting the animals to bed.
Wednesday
Again up early and a good job today as if we hadn't been we may have forgotten a very important day in Romania. The postman had left us mail in the fence and as I picked it up I happened to glance at one of the brochures we usually just throw away. On the front cover was a picture of a child and some words I didn't recognize as Romanian so I wonder into Sian to ask her if she knows what it's all about. Her reply was 'WHEN S THE FIRST OF JUNE???' I answer '2 weeks today' and her response is 'WE'VE GOT SOME WORK TO DO!!'. Turns out June 1st is a rather big celebration in Romania and is known as 'Children's day' which as the name implies is a day devoted purely to children. Basically it's a birthday for every child all on the same day. Somehow it had managed to slip our minds (well Sian's as my memory is terrible at the best of times) so all our plans for the week were thrown out the window and it was time to get all the recently sorted boxes out of storage and put them to use. So after my 1st trip to the Lucerne of the day I head straight into the loft to retrieve the boxes and I kid you not within about 30 minutes of them being with Sian in the front room the place looked like a war zone and she was already muttering away to herself!! There were toys, pen's, pencil's, and a manner of all other things scattered around the living room with Sian writing lists of what we have and who needs what. She was writing so fast I swear I saw smoke started appearing from the pad!! This is the part where I tend to leave Sian to it. When she is planning she goes off into her own little world where nothing gets in and she talks in code to herself so I spend a bit of time just watching the animals. I know it sounds silly but after a little while you get to learn what's normal and what's not and with Rita being a bit under the weather I thought it best to keep an eye on everyone but from the look of it the rest of them seem fine. Bori has still not given us a kid and I don't know whether to worry or not as all the signs point to labour but nothing has come of it. We eat lunch (or I do Sian continued her muttering with mouthfuls of food) and after that I was needed to go back into the loft to find a couple of boxes I had missed. Turns out that the boxes had not been stored there to start with and Sian had been so caught up that she didn't realise she had been working next to them all morning..... So after that it was time for feed and watering of the greenhouse then in to help Sian get things a bit more in order.
Thursday
Not up as early this morning as it had been a lat night trying to get things put away again so that the dogs wouldn't come in and destroy it all. It was another lovely day and as soon as we were up Sian went back into Sian world. I head straight to the Lucerne and was up there a bit longer then usual today as it would be my only trip because later on that day we had to brave town to do some shopping. The animals were all very well behaved and when I get down they are all once again visibly panting. Going to be another hot one. By the time get in it's time for round 2 of Sian and Woody vs. the boxes and from the look of it the boxes are winning. We are slowly getting there but with so many age groups we want to cater for it sometimes seems a bit of a uphill struggle. Still the shopping would be a nice break from it and at 2pm we set off. We get into town almost an hour and a half later!!! Thee traffic was horrendous!! Our guess was that everybody was heading to the beach. Our 1st job was to head into a bank in the centre of town of pay a couple of bills and from there we decided that as it was such a nice day we would also head down towards the beach as it was only a short walk from where we were. I had never been to the beach in Constanta but it is lovely. Lots of little paths of rocks that take you out to the sea. A nice little sand/shingle beach and it was pretty much empty!! That's when Sian told me that we were not at the beach most people go to. The majority go to Mamia which is a seaside resort not far from Constanta but we were actually still in Constanta and technically mamia beach was about a mile away. I didn't care it just felt so nice to do something out of the ordinary. Although we both love the charity work and the animals sometimes it is nice to have a bit of a break from it even if it is only for a few hours. So after a little while we decided that the shopping would not do itself so we got a move on to Kaufland and managed to get home just as it was getting dark so it was to bed with the animals round the greenhouse to water then in to eat dinner.
Friday
Back to being up early this morning. Sian was off back to Sian world after the 1st cup of tea but I wasn't able to join her for a little while as I had to, first get the animals to the Lucerne, then I had the glorious job of mucking out.... That is probably one of the biggest drawbacks of having animals on this sort of scale. With it being quite a busy week I had neglected the mucking out and now it was going to be a 2-3 hour job rather then a 30 minute one if I had kept it up together. Still this is the price you pay for keeping the lovable little critters and although they can be a lot of work and take up a lot of our time (especially the pigs and the way they seem to pick the worst possible times to break out) the meat that they provide us with and the joy it brings to the families makes it all worth while, plus the fact they are a lovable lot and provide us with hours of entertainment. I stopped mucking out around 1pm for another trip to the loft to find some more boxes. Luckily they were all where they should have been and it didn't take long. After lunch I finished the mucking out only to find out it was already 4pm and the animals were starting to create havoc about the fact their dinner was mere minutes late so I got on and did that. Sian had started making good headway with the children's day parcels and they were starting to come together which meant it was now the time I would usually start helping to put everything in the right place. However that would have to wait as I wasn't feeling to good so Sian put the animals to bed and watered the greenhouse while I relaxed on the sofa for a little while.
Saturday
Up late this morning and I did not feel well at all. My head was banging and I really couldn't stray to far from the bathroom in the fear of not making it back to it in time. I got up and Sian had made more of a dent in her parcels. They were nowhere near finished but rather then the place looking like a battleground everything was in nice organised piles instead. Sian offered to take the animals up to the Lucerne for me but knowing she was busy I insisted I would go. Big mistake. Within 10 minutes I was back down on the toilet head throbbing and I knew there was only 1 place I would be going.... Back to bed. Sian looked after everything for the rest of the day and I emerged from my slumber around 3pm with my head still aching but at least my belly felt a little better. About an hour later and we were both arguing over who was going to water the greenhouse after feed had been finished. Luckily we didn't have to argue for long because out of nowhere a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in and within minutes we went from a cloudless sunny sky to thunder and lightning with torrential rain. It was a mad dash round to get all the animals in and then a lazy evening starting to make up our parcels. At least the storm made my head ease up a bit!
Sunday
Morning jobs done and trip to the Lucerne done it was back down for my 1st cup of tea of the morning. I felt much better today and once again the sun was shining. Perhaps shining a little to much as the heat was starting to become a little unbearable. Sian decided that today she would take the day off from sorting as she had managed to get lots done over the past few days and catch up with some of her craft work. She had planned on starting it during the week as she is a little behind on some birthday cards she has to make but with a children's day surprise, craft work got put to the back of her mind as it very often does working over here. Me I spent most of the day writing to you nice people. So all in all a nice relaxing day after a fairly busy week. Bori watch will have to continue as yet again she seems to be in labour but we will let you know how that goes next week.

So for now we bid you adieu
L8az peepz!! =)