Piggin Lovely

Once again we've been busy, and now there are a few more small jobs finished in the house and they can be ticked off the evergrowing list of things to do. The tiling in the living/dining room and on the staircase is finished and what a difference it makes. I've still got to grout some of it though but that's the easy part!

Yesterday evening we had friends around and roasted a half pig, it was such a beautiful sight and enjoyed by everyone who came along. Each person brought along a side dish and none of us really knew what the other would bring so that added an element of surprise too. The table was laden with food, drinks flowed nicely and all 6 of the children that were here managed to behave quite well mostly. The rain stayed away and although there was a slight breeze the weather was nice. I'm sure we'll have another pig roast (this was our second) or BBQ at some point this year as it's really nice to be able to enjoy an evening with great company. The only downside to last night was when hubby decided to have a quick dip in the pool and forgot to remove his full pack of cigarettes and lighter from his pocket, they're ruined but it was rather funny.

My garden is looking a little crowded, as admittedly I've not done any weeding for some time. But we are picking ripe cherry tomatoes daily and everything else looks well. Apart from the young onions that I grew from seed and the last chilli plants that went in as the dog has dug them up overnight in her attempt to stash leftovers from the pig roast! Poor Baba the Bulgarian mongrel is looking a little sorry for herself today and I can only guess that she may have eaten too much pork last night. Hopefully she'll perk up tomorrow and be back to her usual, happy self. Neighbours and friends have been giving us bags of cucumbers so we're eating a lot of salads.

Tomorrow we have to go and collect the barley from the village corporation that we ordered earlier in the year. We never know until it's been harvested how much we will get as you pay by the amount of land so some years the harvest is better than others. This year we have 2 decares of land and the harvest was 320 kilo's per decare, so we are collecting 640 kilo's of barley tomorrow which will help feed the pigs and horses over the winter months. There's still straw to order and maize to collect when it's ready too. We just need to sort out some storage for everything now.

I've already started on stocking the kitchen cupboards for winter but am finding it really hard to cook for just two of us, instead of 4, so the plastic freezer tubs are starting to be filled with things I've made that we can just reheat later in the year. Soon I'll be in preserving mode and I'm just waiting for the victoria plums to ripen fully before I turn them into jam. This year I will make less jam and simply freeze some of them for crumbles and puddings over the winter. I won't be making chutneys this year as we still haven't eaten all of the last batch I made. However, I will be turning a lot of the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines into sauces and soups again mmmmmm.

Well I'm off now to sort out leftovers for tea, feed the animals and spend a quiet night in front of the TV.

Hidden Treasures

Over the last few days we've been busy catching up with long overdue jobs around the house and I'm pleased to say we're making good progress. It's great to see things finally coming together and some rooms looking almost finished.

The garden fence is now finished so we can have a totally animal free area (apart from the cats of course lol) and looks lovely, but the star of the show are our original oak beams in the living room area. We uncovered them when we first moved in, they were hidden by years of muck, tongue and groove boards that had been painted and awful shade of green and above them small oak planks with mud as an insulator. What an awful, dirty job it was clearing it all out of the way but it was well worth it as the beams now look fabulous. They've been woodworm treated, cleaned and varnished, which brings out the wonderful rich colour and gives them even more character. To think that they have been hidden away for years is amazing.

So a few more tiles on the living room floor (hubby's job for tonight), skirting boards to add and a coat of paint on the ceiling and that's a room done. I have tried to paint the ceiling in the living room but it's so hot that the paint is drying instantly and giving it an awful, uneven finish so that is a job for October time when it should be cooler.

We've had more wood delivered for my paddock fence so fingers crossed it will actually get done this time and I can ride in safety. For now though the wood is outside of the garage gates and will be fine there until we need to use it. Once the paddock is done we can remove the temporary wire fence that is currently there and re-use that elsewhere.

Our family and friends are still here and so far enjoying their stay. there's the half pig roast to look forward to on Friday and the kids are having fun in the pool as I type this. Although by the sounds of it one of them is getting told off at the moment lol I'm sure hubby's new BBQ will be getting some use and the chilli vodka went down well too.

Lastly, Alan left a comment on my last post with a youtube video, unfortunately my internet is so slow that I can't watch any videos online. Thanks for the thought Alan, maybe you can tell me what was in it?