Getting nuts

It has been a good year for apples, lousy for plums but it seems that we will have an exceptional nut harvest!
However we will have to share it.....

Winter preparations

The experience we have so far with a land climate is that autumn and spring are very short and followed by a real winter and a proper summer. So either it is rather cold or really warm over here. Although the daytime temperature is still far above 20 degrees Celsius, the animals and nature around us start to show signs of a coming winter. Leafes start to color, deer are ‘troating’ (making a low-pitched, deep sound) in the forest around us and days are getting shorter.

After we have taken down a dozen of sheds, now we had to get a 'new' one
Our ‘have to do list before the winter’ is still rather long - we still have to:
- buy a load of fire-wood
- saw up wood to fit our stoves
- buy hay for horse and goats
- adjust the horse stable so goats will have a shelter as well
- get skid chains and winter tires for our car
- etcetera….

However we have started, Arnold made a decent storage for our fire-wood, I made a rather big cold frame (for late spinach and salad) and chimneys have been repaired and swept.

A picture of Juray the Chimney Sweep working on one of our chimneys, the setting and the photo looked to me like a nineteen-century oil painting

Autumn

The Autumn crocus anounces the autumn long before we want to think of it. It is a beautiful flower which grows all over our fields. It is also said to be a deadly poison due to the presence of colchicine and there is no antidote. However I have noticed that our goats are eating it without dropping dead on the spot!

Archeological excavation

We started cleaning our yard today, which was quite a mess after our neighbours finished our new roof. And then Stano came with his great digging machine and turned it into an archeological excavation…..

Hot Pumpkin & Onion Pickles

If you like pickles and hot food, try my ‘Hot Pumpkin & Onion Pickels’; we love them.
1 pumpkin
some onions
some green hot peppers (Habanero!)
1.75 l water
0.5 l vinegar (8%)
100 g salt
150 g sugar
herbs
Mix water, vinegar, salt, sugar and herbs and bring to boil. Fill jars with chopped vegetables, add boiling liquid, close lids. Store in a cool place and wait for at least two weeks.

House and Horse

First anniversary!

We did celebrate our one-year ‘Living on our farm in Slovakia’ today! It has been a great year; we have met wonderful people, worked hard, started to turn a jungle in a small paradise, and have still a lot to do before our place is how we want it to be however we are getting there! Happily we are still ‘not without a bean’, we managed to earn some money and grow some food already.

Four pictures of our house one year ago and today;