April 2014

I have just read the March post, and sheesh we did get a lot done.

As I write this its the 17th April so we are only half way, but I have quite a bit to put on and lots of piccies.

I am writing this from a wheelchair!

When I got back from SA Steve and I went to the local pub, and I (very stupidly! Hindsight is a wonderful thing!) celebrated a local chaps "Name Day" by drinking too many of the local Hungarian spirit called Palinka with him. I do not recall falling over, but the next morning I was very battered and bruised, and minus my mobile phone. My left ankle was bruised and swollen, and blue. The assumption was a sprain and tearing of tendons and/or ligaments, but five weeks later when the swelling had still not gone down and it began to click, it was time for professional help.

To cut a long and boring story short, I fractured the ankle bone, and the very efficient Doctor at our local hospital has put my leg in a half cast for a week, with strict instructions to keep off the foot in order for the swelling to go down, and then its a full cast for four weeks.

Half cast.

Its really frustrating not to be able to do anything, but hey ho I have learnt my lesson! Bones are getting older, and its no more Palinka for me!

Onto lighter things!

Namely the new additions to the family, our Sussex chickens! We were given two hens and a magnificent cock by our local friend Istvan, in payment for helping him with his English course homework. But after a couple of days we realised that the area we had for them was too big, and they were a little too lonely, so we begged him to sell us a couple more, a week later he delivered (unceremoniously in a sack!) three more scrawny hens of the same type. We have had these now for a week, and already they are flourishing, since they came from a flock of around thirty, and probably had to fight for every morsel of food, this is heaven for them.

They are producing 3-4 eggs per day and considering that the 56kg sack of corn we bought for them, and a 15kg bag of minerals and vitamins came to around 12 quid, we will probably land up getting our money back on the eggs.

Our first 2 eggs! Check out the colour and yolk size!

Lots of grass, fresh water and space!

They are such a pleasure to have! They have their own personalities and are getting quite tame now, and the rooster Cocky is quite a character!

The other big news of April is that we "Finally" had our roof done! It was a cheap quick fix, but it has now sealed the roof, made it rain/snow and wind proof and that was the main thing really. It was done in four days.

Pressure washing the old roof!

Last strips!

This has of course held up everything else, so as you can see, the patio is yet to be completed and the gates are half painted, it was just pointless doing anything with these guys making a huge mess, but its done, yay!

We have also done a bit of socializing in April, Yvonne and Rich who live a couple of villages away are a great couple we met recently, and also Ian and Jayne. Ian's Dad lived in Hungary and recently past away, so he was selling up all his Dad's goods and had a drink in celebration of his Dad Toms life. Here is a group pic of that afternoon, I was (force?) fed 70% vodka it was a great day.

Great people, great day, great weather!

One of the highlights was that we bought Tom's BBQ. Steve is utterly delighted with his purchase and was determined to try it out, undeterred by the rain!

In closing, I report that the spring rains have arrived, but we have sown the new grass, some corn and sunflower seeds so we can sit back and watch them all grow, for myself, its a relief that its raining I don't have to feel too guilty watching Steve work whilst I sit with my foot up letting it heal.

We know summers around the corner and we look forward to it!