The Ever-Extending Task List(s)

One of my favourite pictures of Auntie Mary. It is fairly old at
this stage - Friends of the Blog may recognise the little girl here
as (now) University Student, Emily Jane. 

Just 2 posts ago (9th Oct), I noted that Auntie Mary (The Nun) had been causing a little concern with her health. Just prior to her 90th birthday she was taken quite ill but then had rallied well. Ah well, the rally was not to be and Mary passed away peacefully in her bed this afternoon with Mum-in-Law (Steak Lady), friends and members of staff and co-residents of the home at her bedside. The funeral will be on Thursday up there in Drogheda. Elizabeth (and many other family members) will be there but I regret not myself. RIP Mary. You were a lovely Lady and will be much missed.

Storm Callum clears away so the sheep
get to rest on the good grass in the sunshine

Even without the funeral, this back-end-of-week is turning into one of those whirlwinds where the jobs, events and appointments add themselves to the calendar at a faster rate than we can cross them off, and a lot of them involve some lengthy car journeys, especially for Elizabeth. Even the weekends are no longer free. This workload at present is mainly being picked up by the Woman of the House, so I need to re-iterate my gratitude both to her and to the 'Health Gods' - they laid me low but at least at a time when help is at hand.

Work has gone a bit mad-busy for Elizabeth lately and she already had her Horticultural Course on Thursday and a voluntary work shift on Friday, both of which are now sidelined.

Did I mention that the goose egg season
had started?

Tonight (Tuesday) is the Lisacul Players meeting to read the 2nd possible play. I have no idea what they are reading tonight but I can, at least, update the previous post with what last week's choice was, being "Love Thy Neighbour" by local playwright Jimmy Keary.

The small-batch gin makers are getting
a bit lairy with their branding. The gin is
very nice, says Elizabeth but definitely
pre-lemon'd. 

Our main man, Tommy C knows Jimmy quite well and Jimmy has volunteered to come and sit in on one of the readings or rehearsals. Even better, if our cast man/woman balance cannot be made to fit and we need to have a woman play a man's part, Jimmy may be able to help us with a re-write. Naturally we all hope it will not come to that, but the Players need young men to come and fill the likely vacancy.Thursday evening, of course (funeral mission permitting) is furniture restoration evening class.

'Parma' ham leg now sleeved and air-drying

My contribution to the 'to do' list is definitely easier. I am off to the Doc's tomorrow for a catch up. I need to re-assure myself that "we" (Doc and me) are doing all we can to make this heart surgery happen and to stop my occasional bad nights of coughing and losing sleep. Have we chased paperwork and responded to all contacts between the hospital and the GP? Nothing we've missed? Nothing she is thinking I've covered and me vice-versa? I am 12 weeks out of hospital today and it's all gone worryingly quiet.

Lamb leg (plus a whole bulb of garlic in the wee 'tagine' thingy)

Talking of which (quiet), we were homing in on the arrival of our next pair of Help-X volunteers, Vicky and Judith, German medical students. They had gone very quiet too, such that I was just starting to think we might be victim of another blow-out, like with our French lad for August.

In the down-time, such as it is, Mrs C gets on with some
furniture restoration 'homework'

No need to worry on this occasion; an email and a text had them 'awake' and responding. They were all excited, packing, booked on flights to bring them into Dublin at 12:20 on Wednesday. Collecting them from Castlerea station at either 5-ish or 8-ish is just another task on the list.

Completed piece. Elizabeth always was THE
BEST gloss painter I know.

We will settle them and then Mrs C will head off to 'Sparks' for an overnight much nearer to Drogheda than here, to ease things in the morning. I will look after them that night and for breakfast and then give them some jobs for Thursday, plus feed them round till Elizabeth returns.

I hope that by the time I write again, we will have ticked off a lot of these jobs and be feeling a little less 'buried'.

Callum Comes a-Calling

Storm Callum

Named storm 'Callum' arrives heralded by the usual colourful wind maps and weather warnings from Met Éireann and (National broadcaster) RTE. He looks from the first predictions, that he will split up either side of the island's SW corner and will mainly be a coast problem. Co Roscommon is a land-locked county, so we only got a 'yellow' warning (for rain).

Upholstery "stuff" will need an official
storage place.

And so it turned out. We'd taken all the normal precautions (hives strapped down, lumps of concrete on hutch roofs etc) and we have our new chicken house roof, so we felt safe enough but no-one here was complacent and we all saw the sorry pictures of the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael which took out great tracts of Florida. I was woken by heavy rain at about 3 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m. and there were puddles but we got away with no damage.

Rooster Gandalf (right) minds a group of hens sunning them
selves and preening. 

We had even got away with a 2 day "Indian Summer" prior to Callum, with the south winds bringing unseasonably warm air up from Spain. We'd been able to sit outside, in my case with the camera, and take a few pics of the various birds relaxing in what might be their last warm days this year. For 2 days we did not light the range (I have now!). There was plenty of bee activity in both the hive and the swarm box.

Despite appearances, we think this may be a hen.

I noted in a recent post that we did not seem to be able to produce here, a white coloured hen despite having Sussex birds in the flock for all the 6 years we have done chickens here. All our white babies seemed to grow up into roosters, way outside the Law of Averages.

Rooster Gandalf has had enough of being magnificent and full
of breeding season glory. He goes for the moult.

Very recently we 'offed' the last youngster as it started to shout Cock-a-Doodle-Dooooo! and grew an impressive long tail and the big facial features (wattle, comb) of a cockerel. He also started trying to jump/rape women belonging to Gandalf and Herme and was getting a good kicking from those two boys. It was not going to end well.

Now, that lad was one of a small clutch of babies hatched in spring, a 2nd one of which was also white, and we watched anxiously as the two white "boys" both grew up, were seen play-fighting one another and seemed to be heading for similar tall stature. We were sure they were both roosters.

Pretty hen enjoying the sunshine

Then a month or 2 ago, the 2nd bird suddenly stopped growing and never developed the tall tail or big face, never crowed and did not start harassing the 'sisters'. She(?) is a bit rangey and long limbed so she will be a big bird but we think we might just have a hen, there.

Turkey hen, 'Deo' seems quite happy solo.

We have been keeping a close eye on the turkey hen, 'Deo' after we had to cull out the 'tom' ('Excelsis' - there was a bit of a Christmas theme developing there, for a while). Turkeys can form very close pair bonds and can pine away and die at the loss of their partner. Deo seems to be OK and happy enough hanging with the three Guinea Fowl cock-birds. So far so good anyway.

In line for some culling action, these two "spare" Appleyard
drakes.

Also in this inadvertent tale of culling and death we have 2 'spare' drakes quietly getting on with enjoying a bit of a stay of execution. They were due to go on their final journey back at the end of our Help-X visit by Sonja and Asbjörn but that was when the turkey-tom decided to lose the plot and attack me. He stepped into harm's way and the processing department had enough on its plate. Never mind, the Lady of the House will not be that busy for ever and their turn will come.

I can never see how this is comfortable.

Did I say 'busy'. Oh yes, I have not yet mentioned that that other big 'time-suck' that mops up our free time each year, is about to re-start..... The Village Play. The Lisacul Players wake up about now each year and start planning the next Easter's production. The 'wake up' meeting was on Wednesday and involved a big gang of them (13) reading one of the (3) plays short-listed by main man and Producer Tommy C. I went along as the reading started late enough that I had all the birds locked up safe from Mr Fox. I am sorry I did not make a note of the play or writer but it was by a well known and prolific local play-wright.

Plenty of bee activity round the swarm box in the warm days.

The Players have to try to find a play that suits their male/female cast balance and they also prefer plays where there is not just one major spoken part. We prefer well balanced 'ensemble' plays. The one we read was very good and very funny and may end up being "The Play", but the Players are going to read another one next week and another the week after, and then decide. I will keep you posted.

Finally, we came to time for the big 'Parma' ham legs of pork to come out of their dry salt/sugar cure and to move on to the next phase: 4-18 months of air drying hanging up from the ceiling in a nice airy, well ventilated space. This change involves having to scrub off all the encrusted salt using cider vinegar (or the odd splash of hot water which you must quickly pat off once the salt is gone).

Legs scrubbed clean of salt

They get wrapped in a muslin sheath or a pillow case to deter the flies but they should not really need that, being so salty and vinegar-y by now on all the cut surfaces and skin. I could not actually find the muslin when I went to do this but pending a rescue, hung them up naked anyway and I have seen no flies on or around them, so we should be OK. They hang for 4-18 months gently drying out and maturing, and losing around 30% of their weight.

That must be about it for this post so I will wish you Good Luck and hope you all survived 'Callum' as painlessly as we did.

Oh - one last thing. We have had our first goose eggs of this season

Crab Feast

Up tails all?

Three days of solid wind and wet, squally rain are just "normal" Irish weather while all wait to see if the next 'named' storm (Callum, formerly Leslie in the USA. All our best storms are American hand-me-downs) comes in this direction. It is being described as a "ferocious looking beast" and is due, if it does arrive, on Thursday. Another one making me glad we replaced that tarpaulin roof on the chicken house but also raising a wry smile; earlier in the weekend there was talk of an Indian Summer. It all seems to have gone a bit quiet in that direction.

Auntie Mary enjoys her tea.

Auntie Mary, sister to the late Theo, gave the family cause for concern over the last month(s) by getting very ill. Mary is our retired Nun, living now in the Sisters' Retirement Home up by Dublin after a life spent doing 10-year tours of duty missionary-ing in Africa. Well, I am delighted to say that she was moved into a more intensive care part of the building and got some improved medical attention and is now well recovered and is described as "good as new", "flying", "doing wonders" and "out of bed". She has also enjoyed her 90th Birthday, so well done Mary.

Advert for furniture restoration classes on the Village Website

Meanwhile, closer to home and enjoying a restoration to good health (Did you see what I did there?), is some of our tired old furniture. A few weeks back, the Village 'Hall' (Centre) started evening classes in furniture restoration. Students were asked to bring along a small piece of their own furniture which was looking tired, so that the instructor could start to show them tools, techniques and safety stuff as well as showing them how to pull these pieces apart carefully.

Our 'Darby and Joan' chairs by the pond.

Elizabeth took along a small bedside drawers unit and has thoroughly enjoyed it. She has taken a gazillion photos and written reams of notes. Then this week, she upped the ante by moving her attention to one of our two (well, 'my') favourite upholstered chairs. These are old style sit-up-and-beg things, very narrow with no big wide padded 'wings'.

A nice and unusual find in the shopping
- frozen crab!

We actually acquired them when previous owner of our Faversham house left them behind in a stack of junk in one of the many garden sheds. Back then (25 years?) they had lovely tooled leather backs which had seen better days. We had a chum who did a bit of upholstery 'do them up' with dark blue fabric and I have loved them ever since. Maybe it is the 'too well loved' current appearance of them that has drawn Mrs C's focus.

She took one of them into the class last week minus its seat-cushion and spent the evening prizing away the fabric layers, pulling out pins and staples with the mini-crowbar, easing off webbing and beading strips, lifting out the wadding and the hessian and rougher fabrics which supply hidden strength. All these goodies were stashed careful for use as templates on a shopping trip. The instructor and she were also able, with the chair stripped of upholstery, to fix a slight rearward lean on the frame (this heavy bas***d flopping into it too many times?) by removing some brackets, straightening the legs, gluing the joints and re-fixing the brackets.

Before it all got messy.

Off today shopping then, armed with her parcel of templates and samples, to the good fabric shop in Roscommon Town ("Finishing Touches"?) who had everything she needed and plenty of it reduced in price including a lovely burgundy coloured fabric, enough for both chairs and a separate seat cushion for each. There is a great bundle of wadding for a soft seat, webbing straps, beading 'ribbon', new hessian and the rough cloth which I do not know the name of. It is spoiled I will be!

Deconstruction.

Then in a nice surprise shopping discovery, Elizabeth came across frozen (cooked) brown crabs for only a fiver each. We love our crab here but have not been able to find any since we moved over. Only one meal, maybe, but with the weather outside being so miserable that the photographer is pinned down inside feeling uninspired, you get half a dozen pictures of it. Hope you don't mind.

That's more like it.

Half the fun of crab and lobster is all that cracking open claw bits and prizing out the meat with your skewer, so our way to serve is to pre-prep all the body-meat plus the tiny stuff from the legs and upper limbs. That gets variously en-saladed or mixed with mayo and served back in the empty shell, and you get the big claw bits (cracked but not open) on the side to play with. The food prep area in the kitchen looks like a road accident for a while but is easy enough tidied and the hens love picking the bits of shell over on the compost heap. At those low prices, the shopping dept also snatched up a bottle of Prosecco to go with, nicely chilled. It was a lovely meal.  A delightful and rare crab feast.