Ski Area Opening Day

Lovely snow. Amazing for November and pretty good for any time of year. Not to hard and not to soft... just right!

Pigs to abattoir

Always a sad day, but we know it is coming and hopefully they don't.
These pigs were really good. They were friendly and funny and entertaining, they weren't scared of things and so learnt to load in to the trailer quickly and we hope they are tasty!
Pigs can't go to the abattoir the night before as they tend to fight so you have to take them in for 5am!
Previous pigs we have loaded the night before as we weren't too confident about them loading and we wanted to leave time to sort it out if needs be. These ones we decided were calm and happy enough to load in the morning and it seems kinder on them not to be wedged in the trailer overnight. So we were tottering around the woods looking for them at 4.30 am. Fortunately they woke up easily and took it in their stride that they were being fed at this unusual time.

Goodbye Buttercup

Very sad day. Buttercup died.
She was our very favourite cow and we loved her dearly. She was 11, which is getting on a bit for a cow. I have sometimes felt a little jealous of people’s stories of moving to France and having amazing neighbours who welcome them with open arms and help them with all sorts. I have also sometimes felt relief that ours mainly ignore us, when I hear about horrible feuds with neighbours. This story has a nice ray of sunshine for the ending as our neighbours really stepped up when we needed help. 400kg of dead cow would be quite tricky to get out of a steep field without a tractor! Another happy bit of the story is that we didn’t in the end have to pay 400€ to have the body recovered, because one of the many ‘social charges’ I pay each year for the animals (and don’t fully understand) covered us for this! That 6€ a year is a bargain! We still have Buttercups daughter and grand daughter, but they aren’t newly as sweet (and funny and bolshy) as she was.
RIP Buttercup.

With her family

So pretty and sweet natured

With Dorne and Nathalie earlier this year

DIY shops and fixing things

It is the first (and probably last) sunny day in ages, where did we spend it?  In DIY shops!! We were getting stuff for a bit of a kitchen upgrade in La Mongie, but as a fabulous side effect I fixed our kitchen tap at home! It has been getting weedier for a while. Living in London I never considered what is inside a tap. Why would I - any problems call ‘a man’. But life here is different.  We bought a water pressure meter to try to track down the problem. When I took the tap apart to use it, I found lots of little black bits that have obviously been sucked up by the pump at some point and got stuck in the filter (no I didn’t know there would be a filter in there - we had ruled out bits getting through the pump as surely we would see them in the water). I have washed them out and the tap is back to normal. Hurrah! Ok it doesn’t make me a genius, but I am happy to feel that over time we are getting to grips with the challenges of doing everything ourselves (difficult to find a plumber to tackle the oddities of our swamp/spring/eccentric pump water system). It was very hard and stressful at the beginning, but is getting easier with time. It made the missed sunny day feel worthwhile!

Hay!

We should have collected hay before the never ending rain, as we can’t drive up to where we store it when it is too muddy. We finally decided we had to do it regardless of the weather, before the horses started starving. Thankfully we were lucky with it being dry today.  We will need to get perhaps 4 more loads like this to see them through winter. They eat a lot - which turns in to a lot of poo that has to be shoveled! The horses are pleased though, so all worth it

Stu to abattoir

We decided that we would keep two of the calves until they are 2 or thereabouts but that we would do one as oldish veal. Stu was born first and so drew the short straw. We hope and believe his life was sweet though short and we plan on enjoying what we get from him including the skin.
Curing a cow/veal skin is a lot of work, we have had one not work and one that went well, so fingers crossed.
The inside of the abattoir - the staff are all very nice and friendly and we can go in and see that the animals are in a stall safely and comfortably. We take cows in the night before. Stu was in with another similar size cow.

We get the skin back before the meat. I have salted it and put it in the alum bath that has the sheepskin in it. I hoped to have time to get on with it straight away, but did not so it could be in there for some months...

First Mince Pie

First mince pie of the season. Hot cross buns seem to have gone year round so why not mince pies too? Thanks Emma!

First Frost

First frost today (we also had a little bit of snow in the garden yesterday morning, but it melted off quickly). Fortunately Aidan and I pruned and brought the geraniums in last week. Poppy says the best thing is to hibernate until Spring (or the next opportunity to run in the snow).

little bit of frost

time to snooze

little bit of snow

Baking Baguette

2nd attempt at baguette. 1st one tasted good, but looked like a slightly squished slug. I have previously thought baguette too difficult, and also unnecessary to attempt as there are so many yummy local ones... We were meant to have it for lunch, but a power cut got in the way. It went well with dinner instead - slow roast beef hock and butternut squash, cooked with red wine.

First ski of the season

First ski of the season. Normally this involves using your oldest skis and crashing over rocks, but not this year! It has been snowing for much of the last week. Wet, muddy and horrible at home, but lovely up here.

We didn't expect so much snow so early so Aidan didn't have his ski gear with him, but he came for a snowshoe instead...

Look at the depth of the snow!

Green Tomato Chutney and Jam

1kg unripe tomato, chopped quite small
2 medium hot chilis, chopped small
250g white sugar (or brown if you prefer)
100ml cider vinegar
1 tsp citric acid
Picking spices

Put the tomato, spices and chili in a pan with a little water and cook on low until the tomato have gone very mushy.
Add the vinegar, citric acid and sugar and continue to cook until the mixture is thick.
Put in to sterilised jars.

Eat with cold meat, cheese, curry or whatever you fancy.

1kg green tomato
Some chili
1kg sugar
Juice and zest of 1.5 lemons

Put the tomato and chili in a pan with a little water and cook gently until soft.
Add the lemon juice, sugar and zest and continue to cook gently until a set is reached
Put in to sterile jars.

Also good with cold meat, cheese and whatever...

Christmas Cake Made

As always I used the Weatherill family recipe https://laviealapetiteferme.blogspot.com/2014/10/christmas-cake-recipe.html

Lorna made this cake for us for many years but now I have to do it myself. This year planning on cream cheese icing as less solid than royal icing and less sweet than the butter icing I did last year...

Visit from Aidan

Aidan came to visit, partially to get away from the horrors of brexit as he couldn't bear to be in the country to witness it. Of course it was delayed. But lovely to see him anyway.

The weather was mostly a bit crappy unfortunately but we did many useful things anyway and there was a nice window during what we did a lot of mowing. Fun! See how well we treat our visitors

We drunk lots of beer. Many different sorts. It is quite exciting the variety available now compared with even 3 years ago. Several local micro breweries have started up as well.

We walked as well

and ate

we juiced some apples we were given

made some of our own beer which we enjoy more even than the great variety of beers now available in France. We make ours less strong than most beers out there which we prefer.

More walking, this time in the snow! Of which great amounts arrived during Aidan's visit

we ate even more. This is one of our ducks. YuM!

We talked and despaired about politics

Snow shoeing too

Come again soon!

Coasters

We had some coasters made to match Cathy's pictures on the wall. They came out really well.