Made me laugh

Best curtains I ever made

Ok so these are the first curtains I have made, but pleased with how they have come out.

Lorna (my mum) made curtains for pretty much every flat I lived in. When she was terminally ill with cancer she was worried about what I was going to do, so gave me some special lessons on curtain making. I have also watched her make many many pairs. Normally she does separete lining though and I decided to do fully lined - why make it too easy!

Now I have to make 5 more pairs for the new flat. Aaargh it is a full time job.

Bif seems well

I mentioned last week that Bif had a worrying cough and intermittent breathing problems. We wormed him and gave antibiotics as well as moving him and Buttercup in to a separate field so Bluebell stopped stealing his milk. One of these things - or just time - seems to have made him better. He does the odd cough still after very enthusiastic prancing or running but overall he seems fine. He is also putting on weight which must be good. He is pretty impossible to catch now - which we are going to havr to overcome somehow as we need to dehorn and castrate him at some point soon...

Clabber

1. Clabber is a food produced by allowing unpasteurized milk to turn sour at a specific humidity and temperature. Over time, the milk thickens or curdles into a yogurt-like substance with a strong, sour flavor.
   
   
   This is the description of clabber on wikipedia. We have read that it is a good way to feed chickens, and even dogs, cows milk so that they can digest it well. As it is solid, it makes it easier to feed it to the chickens than milk too.
   The first milk I left out with the hope of it clabbering turned fizzy and didn't go solid. The chickens still loved it after I had soaked their grain in it to make it possible to feed it to them.
   For the next attempt I stirred some of the fizzy milk in to it as I have read that you can get clabber going well by stirring failed attempts in to new milk...
   This did go solid although it didn't smell as nice as some reading suggests clabber can, I certainly didn't fancy tasting it. The chickens went mad for it though. 
   
   
   I have mixed some of that in to more milk and set it off again. Apparently eventually it should just turn solid and taste sour but nice, then you can make cheese from it and all sorts...
   

   
   

Milking Stanchion

It needs a tiny bit more work.

We have decided that before Bluebell gives birth we need some way of holding her still for milking. We found with Buttercup it can be crucial that thry are milked as at thr beginning they jus have more than the calf can deal with. They may get mastitis if it is not dealt with. She is due the 10th of September so we need to get on with building it and training her to go in it before then.

Doug has measured the cows, designed it, bought the wood and cut most of it to length. Looking good so far...

Poor Poppy

We went for a walk this afternoon to somewhere not far from home that we have't been before, up in the mountains overlooking Bagneres. Poppy had great fun chasing parapenters (we didn't let her go until they were well off the ground) until one time she came back limping.

From a distance it just looked like she must have slightly bruised a paw or something as she was walking slowly and limping a little, not holding the leg of the ground, not bad. But when she got to us she was really shaking and when Doug lifted her leg to see what was wrong we could see a gaping hole in her chest. Initially we were worried the hole went right through her ribs, but some poking around showed it was deep, but not that deep. She must have run at high speed in to a sharp stick or something. 

She obviously needed a vet and we were stressed about finding one open. A visit to friends with three dogs put us on the right track and we eventually found one open at 6pm on a Saturday. The nice lady put 3 staples in to hold it together and told us to come back in a couple of weeks to have them removed and keep her quiet for a few days.

Right now she is a pathetic sight and can hardly walk as it has all stiffened up. We had to put her jacket on despite it being August to stop her licking and nibbling it. I imagine in a day or two she will be back to her mad self. Hopefully - as Doug is coming to London this weekend and she is staying with friends. Mind you perhaps they will be relieved if she is in a quiet state of mind!

Doesn't look bad now it it stapled together and you can't see the gaping hole inside which is good!

We later moved on from the jacket, via a tea towel to this old shirt of Doug's to stop her licking and nibbling. Bit cooler than her fleece jacket...

Quick Pizza Recipe

200g plain flour

1tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1tsp sugar

150ml milk

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the milk and mix then need for about 5 mins. 

Leave covered to rest for 5 mins

After this just make as you normally do pizza

Roll out and put in to a 12in pizza tin

Top with cheese, tomato and topping as for a normal pizza (depending what the topping is I might put it on now or a minute or two before cooking is complete.

Cook in a hot oven for 8-15 mins depending on the heat of the oven.

Cut and serve

This is the last bite, forgot to take a photo before this...