Christmas Message

To all of those who have been directed to this post from our Christmas Cards, and perhaps are new to this blog, welcome and again we would like to wish you a very happy festive season. To those of you who did not receive Christmas cards but are regulars of the blog, sorry, we ran out of stamps... but a very happy Christmas to you too.

So in good Christmas card tradition here is all our news from a very eventful year.

At the start of 2005, after our big move to Norway in September 2004 I was still living in Mari's uncles flat outside Bergen. Mari finished her temporary work at the Vet school in Oslo before our Christmas holiday in Ireland and moved to Bergen early in the new year to join me and the Animals. I continued at Norwegian classes until the end of February and Mari found herself with more and more work helping a local vet.

In early march, I began working for Scanship, in Tønsberg located on Oslofjord in the South east of the Country. Whilst the official company language is English (all customers are outside Norway), it had been decided that everyone was to continue to use Norwegian in everyday work and not to resort to English. This was very tough to begin with, but now, I manage without too many problems day to day and I am very grateful for this experience.

From March until May we lived apart again, with Mari continuing with her work for a local vet on the West coast. What was meant to be a couple of days a week ended up as a very intensive period of long days, working both with small animals and having a heavy involvement in the Lambing season.

We needed all the money that she had worked hard for and the money that I had saved by living in a flat kindly provided by my work when we took the plunge and bought our beautiful and peaceful smallholding, up in the Norwegian Countryside, in May. The housing market here, and the popularity of the property dictated that we must purchase it only 2 days after I had been for a viewing. Mari first saw our new house around 2 weeks after all was done and dusted!! Very luckily it was to her satisfaction. With 2 acres of land, a large barn, 2 tractors and so on, I was always going to be happy!! It cost more than we had planned to spend but most of the Small holding in the area required major renovations to either the farm buildings, the house or both. This, we have been spared. It's not all perfect but it is structurally sound and there is no major work required.

So, since May we have enjoyed our new country life. Having good success with vegetables and a great result with our first 2 pigs. We are very fortunate that our only neighbours , the farmer, his wife and 2 sons are very friendly and have become good friends. This wouldn't have happened if I could not speak the language, as our neighbours English is very limited.
On the whole, we have not been lonely. We have had many visits from friends and family, including a really fun house warming weekend when no less that 5 people made the effort to come over from England just for the Weekend.

Since July, Mari, has been working in a clinic in Sandefjord and now continues to work there 4 days a week, with 1 day a week in the local clinic in Revetal. Whilst the work is good and there is pretty much guaranteed work for the coming year, none of this is permanent, so it is not entirely satisfactory. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon situation for vets in the local area.

My work sees me traveling to Finland where Scanship is installing equipment onboard "Freedom of the Seas" which is to be the largest cruise ship in the world when it begins service in late April. As the project is in it's final phase I have had, and will have quite a few weeks away. With all the projects and plans that I have in my life, it is not always easy, but we manage.

Now we are in the midst of frantic final preparations for a Christmas visit from the whole of my family. We are really looking forward to it, but with 15 people in the house, it requires a little bit of planning to organise the inevitable chaos.

So, on a final note, please fell free to leave your Christmas greetings, comments, questions and so on in the comments page. For those of you who are new to this, there is no need to sign up for an account, simply select other or anonymous.

Again, Best wishes for Christmas and the new year.
Andy and Mari

Virgin Birth

Unbelievable News!

It's been nearly 3 Years since we first started to try to get Anitra, our first Bengal, pregnant. She's been with three different men through numerous seasons to no avail.

After purchasing our own Stud cat in a hope to remove the stress of traveling to stud from the equation we quickly found out the problem. It seems that everything functions correctly but as the boy makes his final move, she puts her tail in the way and flops over on her side. What a tease!!!

We are confident that to this day she remains pure and virginous, and yet she is expecting a child (well, at least two actually). What's more is that 9 weeks after the immaculate conception lands neatly on Christmas Day (This was not planned)..... In all reality we expect the kittens a couple of days after the 25th, but if it did happen it would be a tale to be told again and again!!!

Of course, this is not the work of some divine body, this is done by our own hands. My dear wife, the resident vet, after some research, devised our own equipment and method for artificial insemination of cats. Something which it appears is not very common (as there is not often a need, I suppose). This was our second attempt and without out the aid of hormones, she has ovulated and we have been successful. We had taken the decision that she would have one more season and one more attempt before we neuter her, so this is just in time.

During TRV's research, she came across a lady in Sweden and someone in Italy with limited experience of this. To date we have not found documented evidence of this happening before in Norway. So, could be wrong, but it is just possible that we are the first.

Road Kill

My dear wife never ceases to amase me.

On her way home from a meeting last night, she hit an animal whilst travelling at 90 Km/hr.

Fearing that it was dog or a cat, she turn around to check the situation. The animal was infact a hare and I don't believe her vast veterinary knowledge and experience was required to decide that it was, well and truly, dead.

Did she throw it to the side of the road, out of the way of following vehicles, oh no. Thinking of my desires to eat the fruits of the land, she chucked it in the car, with a nice stew in mind......

So, I was presented with this animal as she arrived home, shortly before 11p.m yesterday evening. A quick trip to the neighbours to ask advise, which consisted of a quick description of the gutting and skinning procedure followed by "If it was me I chuck it away in the forest, especially at this time of night!".

Of course, instead of listning to these words of wisdom, we took ourselves down in the basement, skinned, gutted and cleaned up the carcass, which is now hanging in the frige.

So, tommorrow night our weekend guest, Nikster, if he is up for it, will be enjoying some form of Hare Stew. No doubt The River Cottage Cookbook will be used as a reference.

Pigs Ears

After a quick review of my previous posts, I realise that it's about time that I posted about something other than pork. But not quite yet.....

In the weeks leading up to slaughtering the 2 pigs, there was alot of bravado about how the neighbours would come from a meal on the evening that we butchered the carcasses and eat the likes of Crispy Pigs Ears, Chinese style trotters and black pudding.

The Neighbours respose never varied, "If I've had enough aquavit, I,ll eat anything!"

So after all this, I had talked myself into it. There was no being squimish, it was simply a matter of it says it in the book, so make it.....

And have enough aquavit we did, but not before 4 pigs ears had boiled in water for a few hours, been sliced into fingers, given a light coating of mustard and bread crumbs and cook in the oven at a high temp for half an hour or so. Also, Chinese style pig trotters were cooked up according to HFW's instructions.

The pigs ears served with HFW's home made Tartar Sauce, went done a treat. Not so dissimilar to the Pork Scratchings that are a favourite beer accompanient of mine when in the UK. The trotters got mixed reviews, "all fat and no meat" did not go unheard. The black pudding reminded the Norwegians of their days in Kindergaten, which seems to be the last time that everyone from Norway ate it. This was approved, although many insisted coating it with suger. It seems that that is how they get all those toddlers to eat it in the first place!!!!!!!!

All in all, great food and great company.

Hams and other cured meat.

A total of over 20 Ltrs of "Basic Brine Mix" went into curing hams and bacon. These were left in the brine solution for 24 hours and then an extra 12 hours for every kilo over 1Kg. After this time the excess liquid was squeezed from these and they were hung to dry in Muslin bags for 24 hours before finding their way into the freezer. Some of these are designated for Roasting joints and some for Bacon. To date these have not been sampled so I cannot comment if these are a sucess or not.

A total of 7Kgs of "dry cured bacon" was also produced. Pieces of belly, after the (spare) ribs were removed, had a salt, cracked black pepper and brown suger mix rubbed into them every day for 5 days removing the water driven out by the salt from the container every day. At the end of this procedure, this was rinsed, packed and frozen. Before freezing, a small sample was fried for sampling. This was very tasty indeed, the slightlhy excessive saltiness being put down to the fact that the slices came from the outermost part of the bacon. Time will show if this is true.

Aside from the Salami and Chorizo, which doubtless will be the subject of many future posts, there was a "Flavoured Cure", Suffolk, I think it was. A combination of brine, beer, malt vinegar and spices, which the selected ham laid in for 3 days per Kilo. A total of around 4kg, 12 Days. This, according to HFW should have then be smoked, but in the absence of a smoker, it was simply hung to dry for 24 hours and put in the freezer. This should make a substantial dinner, perhaps for New Years, when we have our visitors.

The final, and as previously stated, most ambitious of our cures is the prosciuttio style ham. A back leg, weighing a mere 14Kg (de-boned). Salt was rubbed in to the area from which the bone was removed and the leg stitched back together. This was then packed in a total of 27Kg of salt and a couple of boards were placed on top loaded down by over 30Kgs. This is to be left for a total of 50 Days (3-4 days per Kg) before hanging to dry for a few months. Whatever happens, you will find out.

Pictures to follow.

A Butcher, 50 years ago and now

I know, by now, you have all fallen off the edge of your seats wondering how we got on with our butchering and meat processing plans and I apologise for the delay in this post.

I have 2 excuses for this, most recently, a week of long days and limited internet access in Turku, and, 200Kg of Pork.......

So now, I finally have both time and an internet connection at the same time. All this in a hotel room in Krakow, Poland.

Unfortunately we do not have a accurate measurment of the total carcass weights, the educated eye of the slaughter man put the male pig around 120Kg and the female around 90Kg. All in All, I think it is fair too say, perhaps a little too large.

As mentioned in my previous post, my Father-in-law was the master butcher with myself acting as butchers boy. A remarkable feat and a tribute to the fitness of a man who is a shade under 80 and butchered his last pig over 50 years ago, when he was younger than I am now.
His rustiness showed only briefly. A slightly too tight circle around the first back leg, not quite locating the joints on the trotters first time.The second side was almost perfect and the second carcass went like clockwork. All this in my "lower garage", complete with its newly cleaned, painted and disinfected floor.

By around 4 p.m. on the Saturday we had our Carcasses dealt up as desired. Chops, Hams, 1 enormous back leg for Curing as Prosciuttio, pieces for Sausage meat, fillets, Norwegian "Ribbe", Spare Ribs, Belly Bacon, Back Bacon, trotters, 1 head, 2 ears and much, much more. If any of you out there would like our full detailed plan, please apply through the comments, we'll see what we can do.

All the meat that was not destined for further processing was kindly packed, weighed and labelled by my dear wife, my mother in law and my sister in Law. And very gratefull we are to them. This whole procedure took pretty much the whole day, other than putting a few hams in their respective cures and cooking our celebratory feast (see next post) the day vanished.

Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall describes it as a "Pig Weekend", you will see from the next few posts that, for us at least, this is more accurately a "pig week".

On-Site A&E

There is much to write about after a very long weekend and 1 evening of butchering and meat processing, but I'll start with this.

A weekend of butchering pigs inevitiably includes sharp objects, one of which found it's way deep into my thumb early Saturday Afternoon. A particularly sharp knife that the father-in-law went to put down on the table in the same place as my thumb.

The cut was not to large, but it was deep enough to need attention. After a brief moment of panic that all our plans will be ruined by a trip to casualty, it was quickly decided that the resident vet could fix me. A quick bit of local and a couple of stiches and I was out working again (with gloves on, of course) inside 20 minutes. Very efficient.

Black Pudding.

Well, the deed is done.

As planned the 2 pigs were slaughtered on Wednesday.

Their was very little stress (for the pigs) about the whole event. They spent the 300Metre journey eating and the experience of the slaughterman was clear from the efficiency of the whole process.

The many times that I have accompanied and helped the resident vet during all manner of operations, post mortoms and so on held me in good sted and I had no problems holding the bucket to collect the blood which is now very tasty black pudding. We also took one liver, both hearts and some of the fat on the inside of the belly, which have gone into 2 different batches of Liver Pate (Most of this is within the guidance of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his antics at River Cottage).

Last night saw us make some "practice" sausages in preperation for the major processing operation tommorrow.

Wednesday was both a sad and an exciting day. It was also a relief. The weather had not been kind to us or the pigs over the last few weeks. The place was pure mud, and trying to feed 2 hungry pigs when it is dark, muddy and raining is not easy. It certainly helped that this was the plan from the start. We enjoyed their characters and their freindly nature. We were amused by their antics. However, we always knew they were not for keeps. We feel that they had a better life than most production animals and the end was conducted in the most stressless way possible.

Overnight Delivery

You couldn't make it up....

After arranging Asia's room, building a nice door (complete with magnetic key lockable cat flap), varnishing Peggys airfreight box and mounting an electric heater on the wall, Asia has had her kittens. In between Me and Mrs VL, in the middle of the night, in the middle of our bed.

Asia has learnt to operate the switch on the cat flap, and had obviously decided that she needed her hand held through this procedure. It was great to be present at the births of the 3 brown spotted kittens, probably girls but the resident vet is not going to commit to that yet.

What wasn't so great was the timing. Asia woke us at about 2 a.m as she clattered open the cat flap and joined us in bed. We organised the bed with an old shower curtain and some towels before the first delivery at around 3:25 (106gms), the second (again 106gms) came at around 04:50 and the third (90gms) shortly after.

So all in all, mother and kittens are doing well.

Strange ingredients

Part of the planning process for the 150 odd kilos of pork meat that we will soon need to deal with involves working out what we are going to make and what we need to do it.

Our recently purchased 400 Litre chest freezer, which should be delivered tommorow can only freeze 22 Kg of meat in 24Hrs. So there is a need for some clever logistics, and hopefully meat that is already nearly frozen due to the temprature in the barn where it will hang for a couple of days.

On way of ensuring that we do not have to freeze all of the meat at one go is to cure some of it. The idea of bacon and hams lying in salt for a number of days does no daunt me too much. On the other hand, Air Dried prosciutto style Ham and cured sausages are, I consider, among the most risky and ambitious things we are attempting.

Mr Fearnly Whittingstall assures that for him making Salami and Chorizo were an unqualified success. Our attempts seemed to be doomed before a single sausage skin was filled. One of the ingredients called for is "acidophilus" a bacteria/start culture, that apparently sets the desired mould growing process under way. Given the availability to the general public of uncommonly used ingriedients in this sparcely populated land our hopes were not high. However, today, 2 phone calls and I have 2 different start cultures suitable for salami and other cured pork sausages winging their way through the post to me. So, as long as they turn up, we'll have the ingredients, we already have the mincer, the eqiupment to fill the sausages and real sausages skins. Looks like theres no excuses and no backing down now.. Don't know if I'm glad or sad.......

If any of you out there have experience in Salami or Prosciutto curing, please share them in the comments.......

The Pigs leave(s) us soon

The pigs have, as you can see, enjoyed their life up until now. However, now that the autumn seems to have been and gone and it has been below zero for extended periods, caring for them has become more difficult.

Last week we had a lot of heavy rain leaving the whole of the pigs area a little of a mud bath and today it has not risen above freezing once, making the use of the hose pipe for water impossible.

The pigs seem to be comfortable and warm enough in their house with deep straw bedding, but there food intake is around 10 Kilos every day.

All in all it is time, so after some debate and waiting to find out about work travels, the slaughter date is set for Wednesday week, 2nd November. As long as the weather doesn't take another turn for the worst, we should manage to keep them outside for the last few days. Lots of planning to do then in the next week then.

Turku, Finland.

After Saturdays 10 hour drive over to Stockholm and Saturday nights ferry crossing, I find myself in Turku, Finland.

The primary purpose of this visit is not pleasure. The next 11 days will no doubt be long and tiring, as we will be seeing to the finishing pre-commissioning touches of Scanships (my employers) installation onboard Freedom of the Seas, which will become the worlds largest cruise ship when it is delivered to Royal Caribbean late spring 2006.

Yesterday though, was a day for recovery and relaxation and after our arrival to Turku at around 9 a.m also offered plenty of time for exploration.

This is not the first time I have done this journey and had a free Sunday in Finlands oldest city. The last time I was delighted to find the presence of a large fish market, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Yesterday, I had the company of a college, leading to a more in depth exploration and the realisation the most, if not all, of the cities many museums are open on Sundays.

Our tour first took us to the Cathedral, completed in the late 13th Century. A spectacular illustration of the durability and wonder of early architecture. Given that it was Sunday Morning, we did not go inside for fear of disturbing those with holier things on there mind than sightseeing. Maybe, I will return one evening this week.

After a tour of the wide streeted town and a spot of lunch it was time to hand over some of our hard earned cash to enjoy presentations of the areas history in local museums.


We mutually decided that the shipping museum Forum Marinum was a good place to start. At first it appear that our 7 Euro's entrance fee was not going to go all that far, but as we took our tour of the museum, it became apparent that this was one of the largest collections of shipping history I have come across. The museum comprehensively covers Turku's shipping and ship building history. Including freight vessels, warships and equipment, pleasure craft large and small and so on. Particular impressive for the petrol head was the room with rows of outdoor motors mounted on both walls. Must have been 8 motors high by 20 motors long, from the earliest engines to the most recent.

I can recommend this museum to anybody, especially those with an interest in shipping and things mechanical in general. If you happen to ever be in the situation that you are a couple of hours early for your ferry from Turku, don't sit in you car like lemons, take advantage of the close proximity of Forum Marinum. Great for old and young alike.

The other museum that we visited was Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova. A combination of the ancient city and a collection of Modern art.

After handing over our 8 euros, we found ourselves directed to a flight of stairs down which, quite literal, we descended into times past. The history of Turku, it seems has been preserved in the soil, and some of those clever archaeology types have spent an awful long time with their teaspoons to unearth it again. So you find yourself exploring part of the old medieval city, where it stood, as it stood. There are, of course, signs of strengthening and repair here and there, but it is amazing just how much was uncovered and found intact. You look into peoples basements, and walk down cobble streets, all now enclosed by modern concrete and steel. Absolutely fainating. Educating, enlightening and fascinating.

The modern art exhibition was entitled ars Iberica. Some of which was, in my opinion, of the "is it really art", "I could have done that" league. However, to find a number of Pablo Picassos in the middle of all this was a pleasant surprise. All of which illustrated why Picasso became a household name in the "contemporary" art
field. The Picassos certainly had something that the others did not.

So, Turku, A compact city, full of history. Come here in the summer, I would imagine that the winter is quite bleak, I will find out soon enough..... I hope to publish some pictures of this beautiful place, but you will have to wait until I am back on Norwegian soil.

Mice, Very Stupid or Very Clever?

It seems that now winter is coming the local population of mice is coming in from the cold and beginning to organise cosy places to build nests for itself.

One of these cosy places was on top of the pig food in it's sack in the wood shed which makes up part the bottom of the barn. Imagine my surprise when I opened the top of the sack to extract the pigs breakfast to find one of the little sods now trapped and trying desperately jump out of the now high edges of the open sack. Pretty much directly at me. Can be a nerve racking business this small holding lark you know. This problem is now solved as the food is now stored in a big barrel hopefully out of the reach of even the most mountaineerous mouse. Knowing my luck next it'll be one of the 3500 mink releasees.

Anyway, that lot is just an aside. Here's the real story.

From the currently distant land of Norway, I have been informed that the cat chalet is showing signs of little visitors during the night. Specifically their excrements in the food bowl obviously after licking out any residual cat foody goodness. So, it seems it's a case of Tom and Jerry. Now, my personal opinion is, to make you home in a house which is clearly regularly occupied by the arch enemy is pretty stupid. However, to live under the floor and to only come out when the enemy is not home, making use of anything he leaves behind, is pretty clever. No doubt, the presence (or otherwise) of a little mouse carcass one day will answer this question.

This unplanned experiment in animal intelligence will no doubt continue for a time. You will be kept posted of any development.

Culinary Uses for Marrows and courgettes #5

Courgette and Slow Roasted Garlic soup

Well, just to show how far behind I am with certain aspects of this blog I had actually made this soup before Irene's comment suggesting courgette soup on my previous related post.

This recipe came from Septembers edition of the excellent Kitchen Garden Magazine.

Roast you garlic cloves in the oven on a lowish heat for some 20 minutes. Meanwhile proceed to sweat your thinly sliced courgettes down to a mush. Add the garlic to the courgettes, plus some stock. Simmer for a while season and blend to desired consistency.

I can imagine that the options for courgette based soup are endless. I will try Irene's suggestions in the near future and report back. In the mean time, I need to catch up as I am at least 3 Courgette/Marrow recipes behind.

Kittens Expected.

It's all been a little bit chaotic the last few weeks and it's been difficult to find time to post. So, there's lots to catch up on, including a pigs update, more uses for courgettes, a trip to the lake district, preparations for winter and so on.

However, something very exciting has happened so I will skip all these posts and jump to the present for now.

More than 2 years after we purchased our first Bengal female, Anitra, with a view to breeding from her, we have finally had a successful mating.

Asia, our 2nd girl who we purchased and exported with us as we left England had a season during our weekend at Niksters and Frans wedding (August 20th). This was only her second season this year. The first being early in the year, which did not lead to a successful mating. It would appear that this time, pretty much left to his own devices, Vegas, our stud boy, has done his job and has truly become a man.....

Before we left for our Lake district trip weekend before last, we noticed some subtle changes in Asia, enlarged teats and slight rounding of belly. Unlike most folk that believe their cat is pregnant until proven otherwise, we have become used to disappointment, so we thought not to much of it. On our return, Asia, was even more rounded and definitely had an increased appetite.

A quick feel suggested that there was something in there, outside the norm. Again, experience said that it couldn't possibly be, so Mrs Longship racked her veterinarian brain for other possibilities. "False pregnancy" and "Pyomertra" were among the many words mentioned. But there was definitely something and Asia was in no way under the weather.

Yesterday, our minds were finally put at rest. Mrs Longship took Asia to the clinic and a quick scan showed the presence of probably 3-4 happily wriggling kittens, expected due date 23rd October.

So, this means 2 things.

1st, we will hopefully have Bengal kittens for sale, ready around Febuary next year, any one interested (bearing in mind we are in Norway, although we will be happy to arrange export) can get in touch through Starsprung.com
.

2nd, Vegas has proved that he is fertile and can do his job, so we can now seriously consider him for use for limited outside stud. Again Starsprung.com if you are interested in using Vegas.

AS you have gathered, I have finally managed to get the cats website up and running. See all three of our cats there, including the new "gallery". The link is also in the side bar.

On the road again.

So, it's taken me nearly as long as it took me to grow my spuds, but finally the Landy is back on the road after a spate of problems with oil pressure. It's great to be able to use the old Girl again.

For all the oily details read my report on More Power, the blog.

The picture enclosed is from the winter during my time living at Mrs Longships Uncles farm outside Bergen. Lovely place, but it rains all the time (Hence the mud....).

Culinary Uses for Marrows and courgettes #4

Pasta Tomato Sauce.

Chop up in chunks and use in any bolognase type tomato sauce.

In this case a very tasty home made variety by Mrs Longship.

The Harvest

Despite the late start, the vegetable garden has been and still is a remarkable success.

We have been eating salad leaves, coriander, marrows, courgettes, radish and sweedes amongst others.

The first bulk harvest to be taken was the potatoes. A Main Crop variety called Laila. Now, these were not in the ground before mid June, but all the same, due to the long days (and perhaps copious amounts of cow manure) grew at an incredible rate. In fact, they grew at such a rate that I was sure that there was going to be all stem and no tuber. They flowered in early August, not more than 7-8 weeks after planting. They were duly dug up about 3 weeks ago and as you can see, despite the late planting and the relatively small area of ground, the harvest was very satisfactory. To use, Laila is a very tasty Potato, holds it shape well when boiled without going floury. The smaller tubers were excellent in Jamie Olivers Potato and Avacado Salad. (From The Return of the Naked Chef).

The other achievement of note is the sweetcorn, the first to cobs of which were devoured last night. Unknown variety, but looks like we will get a good harvest assuming the earwigs, which seem to have taken an interest, don't manage to find their way down into the main part of the cobs. Straight of the plant and into boiling water for a few mins. Serve with a knob of butter. Lovely....

Culinary Uses for Marrows/Courgettes #3

Spicy Mexican BBQ'd Marrow and Onion Kebabs.

This recipe (well the marinade at least) came from the highly recommended "Classic Barbeque and Grill Cookbook" by Marlena Spieler

The occassion was a Cowboy party, which liking to be different, we attended as Mexican Bandits. So you can see that even our food was in keeping with our role for the evening.

The combination of garlic, chilli powder, paprika, cumin, oregano, tequila, lime, olive oil and coriander worked excellently on the duck we took with us, and certainly helped the kebabs, but I guess it going to take a lot to make marrows and onions exciting.

So, good marinade, but the vegetables kebabs were lacking some what in variety.

The Kid Sister has risen at last.

Finally I've got a chance to write my blog...
A few weeks ago my friend and I had the pleasure of spending a week at the Viking Longship Zoo. It was great to see Mr. Viking Longship and Mrs. Longship again even though a certain stag week end and work problems meant Mr. Longships time with us was limited...
We had great fun cleaning out the pigs, taking The Big Tom for a walk and of course plenty of time spent shopping in the various towns and Oslo of course. One night however ended up being a bit of a extreme night out...
Mrs. Longship was on call that weekend but we decided it was time to check out the nearby night life and so it was planned we'd head out in tonsberg and should Mrs. Longship be called out then we'd be deserted until she could find us again. However this was not to be the case. A quick visit to the surgery was called for before our plans could get underway. This was all well and good until a phone call came about a very sick ferret. The ferret was brought into the surgery and since Mrs. Longship couldn't find the source of his problem she decided it was time to forgo our night out and operate. My friend was delighted to play nurse but unlike my big bro I decided it wasnt the thing for me so i sat out on that exercise. It was about 11p.m. by the time the poor wee might was all back together again and since we didnt fancy a night in the surgery and it wasn't fair for his owners to take him home in such a state we brought him home instead. Curious looks from Peggy and the cats were called for as we set up a cage for him in the master bedroom... Thankfully the ferret lived through the night and next morning we went back to the surgery to his owners. All of whome were delighted to see him looking perky again...

Culinary Uses for Marrows and courgettes #2

Chinese style crispy courgete sticks,

This time Mrs longship found this in one of our many cookbooks.

Simply mix an egg white with some cornflower to make a sort of batter, add some chinese five spice powder (or similar), coat you courgette sticks and deep fry until crisp.

Very tasty indeed, although I would advise making the sticks quite thin so that they crisp up and don't end up too soggy. The carrots that she did in the same style were also excellent.

Freedom, at last....

but not entirely welcome to begin with.

It seemed so easy. Finally we had an electric fence generator which worked. All we had to do was connect the fence up, add a temporary extention to the already built fence to create a fence "runway" from the barn to the pigs outdoor enclosure, plug the fencer in and open the door.

The above tasks were duly completed in the correct order, and hey presto....... Nothing. Against our expectations the pigs didn't seemed that bothered with the oppurtunity of running in the meadows which was presented to them. In fact, the idea of being out of ther humble pen seem daunting.

The first attempts of extraction involve coaxing with food, this got us about as far as the door. Then there was man handling, lifting the front legs and dragging the back, with much squeling (us and the pigs!!!) to boot. The result, pig gets to grass patch, pig runs straight back to pen containing compainion.

We got a little further on subsequent attempts, pig through fence and on the lawn, pig in barn on wrong side of fence and so on.

In the end, success was achieved by carrying both pigs, one back from another excursion to the lawn, and one from the barn in quick succession. When we finally had both in the right place at the same time, all was well and they began to look like they were going to enjoy the great outdoors.

Culinary Uses For Marrows and courgettes #1

It's that time of year again. We, no doubt in conjungtion with many other kitchen gardners, are experiencing a glut of marrows and courgette which requires some imagination to deal with without becoming fed up with the sight of marrows.

Being the public spirited person I am, I will proceed to share with you out there, the various ways we find to liven up this repetitive vegetable over the coming weeks. No idea how far this'll get, I expect to get to at least 10 recipes.....

So for a start, this was completely made up from what was available in the fridge/garden and turn out very good indeed.

Marrow stuffed with yellow curry mushrooms.

Fry up some mushroom slices, onions and carrots in butter, adding a couple of tablespoons of your favourite yellow curry paste after a little while, on this occassion I used a jar as I couldn't be bothered to start from sratch). No need to go tooo mad, just make sure that everything is softened and covered in the butter.

Cut slices of Marrow, about 1-2 inches thick. With a knife carefully remove the inner core/seed from each slice leaving the outside ring of flesh and skin.

Lay these slices in an oven proof dish (with a lid) and fill the insides with the yellow curry mix.

Bake in the oven (with the lid on) at 220c for about 25 mins or so.

The spicy flavours of the mushrooms complemented the marrow very nicely. We serve this with Salmon rooled in chilli, lemon grass and coriander flour, with a cocunt milk sauce. However, for you veggies out there, a couple of marrow slices is a meal on it's own.

Scottish hotels, Dunoon, Edinburgh and Prestwick

O.K. It's all been happening in the last couple of weeks, pigs, hay, woodworking, potato harvesting......, a stag weekend and a wedding. All in all lots to post about, so I best get started.

As a result of the stag weekend I had occurance to spend 3 sucessive nights in different Scottish hotels. All of which were note worthy not all for good reasons

Our choice of stag activities took us to Quadmania in Scotland, a full review of which can be found on more-power, the blog.

The Friday night saw us staying at The Cothouse Hotel. near Dunoon and only a couple of miles from Quadmania. This charming little hotel, was very welcoming, the food was excellent and it had a satisfactory wine list. I thoughroughly enjoyed the garlic mushrooms and the huge plate of haggis with a sauce of neat whisky. The large selection of Scotch Whiskys was also explored with great relish. The rooms were comfortable, and the breakfast was excellent. I asked for everything from the Cooked Breakfast options, and was duly treatened with the washing up if I didn't clear my plate. It was tough, but I rose to the challenge. The cothouse had that certain personal charm that only a small hotel can have, and large hotels never come near. Prices where very exceptable. If you are spending a night in the Dunoon area, I can highly recommend the cothouse.

Saturday night took us to Edingburgh, an exceptional city for a night out, it must be said. However, exceptional is not one word that applies to the Edinburgh Holiday Inn. This displayed the typical impersonality of a large hotel with a good helping of incompetance and high prices to boot. When we requested a shower curtain, which was missing from the bathroom, the porter told us that "Shower curtains were out" leaving us to soak the bathroom floor each time we had a shower. Reception was chaos both at check in and check out and the main doors, seemed to trigger themselves to open before they had finished closing, making a very irritating, repetitive noise for the crowds waiting for the incompetance of reception to turn it's attention to them. Next time, we will book early and avail of one of the countless other, cheaper, and no doubt better hotels in the Edinburgh area.

Sunday left me on my own in Prestwick before my RyanAir flight to Oslo Torp. My hosts were the "North Beach Hotel". Perfectly acceptable, very good food, and excellent if you play golf. Prices reasonable. Recommended, if you are travelling out from Glasgow Prestwick Airport in the morning as it is right beside the train station which is 1 stop and 2 minutes away from the airport.

Birds of Prey

During the last few weeks I have seen a large bird of prey in the area around the bottom of the lane.

On one occasion sitting on a road sign as I drove past and on another flying over the car at low level. During a discussion with the real farmers dad, I asked what was the largest bird of prey in the area, this he replied was a "Musvåk" which translated is a "common buzzard"

Now, during our time in Cumbria we say plenty of birds of prey, but I don't remember seeing such a large beast close up, although I believe Cumbria also has a population of buzzards. I would guess that this birds wingspan is between 1.25 and 1.5 Metres and it's body is a similar size to a small goose.

Can any of you out there enlighten if this sounds like a Buzzard and if so give me some glues as to how I can identify it better should I see it again. I would say that I will endeavour to obtain a photo, but I think this is unlikely.

All in all, a bit of a worry for future plans of keeping chickens, reckon that a fully enclosed run will be required.

Ice Exports

I figure that I had best complete the journal of our previous visitors stay before our next visitor, "Kid Sister" arrives this evening.

This post is inspired and partly written for "the good cumbrian general practioner" (tgcgp) who came to trace the steps of his ancestry prior to our moving in party in May. It seems that tgcgp's Grandfather made his living exporting Glacial Ice from Søgnfjord to the British isles. Now, you may wonder how all of this relates to the visit of the thoughtful Scotsman..... I can explain.

During the course of our house warming party, tgcgp found himself chatting to an attractive young Norwegian lady, the golf course owners Daughter. One who he was infact already aquainted with (as well as her sister), although he may or may not remember (new years eve, waltzing in the kitchen, pianola and all that......). After his exciting travels he was obviously keen to share his ancestry with those present (ed. verbally, of course).

During our vist to the golf course and their farm, we were shown to the "Stabbur" (little building for food storage and meat curing). This now served as a museum of items from the long history of the farm. Private museums are something quite common, it seems, in Norwegian farms, this is not the first we have seen. It was a great privelage to rummage through the small upstairs room, finding all sorts of things including weaving machines, ancient ski's, tools, bags etc. Remembering the conversation with tgcgp, we were informed of the prescense of a couple of Ice Saws. The photo of one of which is enclosed, with a couple of "golf goons" for scaling purposes!!!

When you've stopped looking at our legs, you will see that this saw was obviously designed to shear of huge chunks of Ice before the were packed in Sawdust and wood shavings for transport to the UK (and presumably other destinations). I am informed that using this packing technique the blocks of ice would keep for "a good time"....

Can those of you who may be seeing tgcgp in the pub tonight, pass on news of this post and tell him how to get to it....

Book Review #1

One of the few advantages of using public transport is that you have a little "quiet time" to enjoy some high quality (or otherwise) literature.
On this occasion I decided that I would read the few books that have been sitting on the bookshelf for years and that we have transported accros the sea although I hadn't yet read them.

The first being, "Terminal Man" by Micheal Crichton, Acceptable but so umemorable that I only realised that I had read it before when I was half way through. Certainly wasn't worth reading a second time.

The second being Joseph Wambaugh, "Lines and Shadows". Now, it is quite commen for me to read sentences more than once to attempt to extract some hidden meaning or to digest the ramifications of what I have just read. With this, however, I ended up reading sentences and even paragraphs multiple times just to extract meaning, which when finally grasped seemed disjointed and often meaningless within the context. After 2 Chapters and many headaches I gave up. For me this was simply unreadable, but realising that you can't just take my word for it, I turned to 2 other intelligent creatures for independant opinions. As you can see they only needed to read the first page before deciding that there was better ways to amuse themselves with this book than read it!!!!

The third (and possibly last for a little while as it is difficult to read books whilst riding a bike (alternative to bus)) was "Stalking Horse" by Terence Strong. This came with a single glowing reference from the "Yorkshire Times". It seems that Yorkshire men are indeed to be trusted and this proved to be quite unputdownable. Not the best book that I have ever read, but the short time that the 500 odd pages were consumed (not quite lit. like the last book though!!!) was an indication of the desire to know more and find out what happens in the end.

Dog eats Blueberries.

Last Sundays outing took us to Hurum golf course, near the picturesque seside town of Holmsbu. The purpose of this outing was to visit Mrs VL university friend, who happens to be the daughter of the owner of the Golf course.

Whilst myself, the thoughtful Scotsman and the owners daughters man enjoyed 18 holes of golf, Mrs VL and the owners daughter took a stroll through the forest with Peggy, our 3-legged hound.

At this time of year it is common for such outings to be punctuated by a stop to collect and enjoy natures offerings. One such delight being wild blueberries. Peggy is always on a strict diet of only low calerie food to keep wieght of off her back leg. However, she is a crafty hound and has been known to supplement her measly intake with chocolate from under the christmas tree, dog buiscuits (whilst staying with a friend she opened the cupboard door in the middle of the night), scraps from the compost bin and so on. On this occasion it seems that she has turned to nature, as you can see from the photo's she has learnt to pick her own blueberries......

More Power, The Blog

is now in the Friends and Family Blogs list.

The re-creation of a previous attempt for two of my mates and myself to keep the world informed about our motoring exploits and experiences. This time by the power of the blog, reckon it should be more successful than our previous website.

Find links to other great motoring sites and keep an eye on "made us laugh today", currently featuring two muppets in a Ferari.... Priceless.

Oslo City Hall, A Correction.

The Thoughtful Scotsman has e-mailed to point out some inaccuracies in a previous post.

Oslo "Rådhus" was in fact designed in the 1920's which TS reckons is Art Deco, I decline to comment as I have already demonstratred my ability to get things completely wrong. It was not completed until the 1950's, however, due to the war and German Occupation of Norway.
The officiall opening was on "Oslo Day" 15th May 1950, coinciding with the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Oslo.

With such a wealth of information out there on the www, there is no excuse for such errors.I can't promise it won't happen again though.....

Warm and Cuddly (and slightly wet).

Yesterday evening on my way back from a trial of my two wheel, emmission free alternative to the bus,which I havn't used in ages, I stopped off to talk to the real pig farmer (a.k.a. The real farmers wife).

AS often, the conversation continued after the real farmer turned up, tales of our first week with pigs,their recent holiday, the lord Mayors dayghters new dog (at least abscence of) and so on....
During this time Mrs Viking Longship had begun the pre bedtime routine of seeing to it thatthe various animals are in the correct locations and suitable watered and fed. One of these tasksbeing to fetch our Bengal Stud cat "Vegas" in from the "Raspberry Cat Chalet" to the downstairs wash room, which currently doubles as a stud quarters. On an aside, I hope to have the cats web site www.starsprung.com up and running again soon, those of you who are interested watch this space.

Now "Vegas" is one who likes his routine. For some reason he has decided that he will not pass water whilst in the confines of the Cat Chalet. We have even installed a larger litter tray for him, but he still will not use it. So, normally, you fetch Vegas in, having a little "I've been out on my own and want some fuss" cuddle on the way, and as soon as he is inside he empties his very full bladder in the stud quarters litter tray. That cat can pee for what seems like 5 minutes. After this He is often allowed to have a run around in the kitchen and living room as the empty bladder significantly reduces the risk of spraying (although he doesn't seem too fussed by that in this new house, perhaps as cats have not lived here before).
On this occassion, as he was typically cuddly, Mrs VL decided that she would cary him down the 100 or so metres to where she was undoubtly certain she would find me. On seeing my big cuddly boy, I of course wanted to take him and share in the warmth of his cuddle too. After a little more discussion I became aware that Vegas seemed even warmer against me chest and almost sligtly damp. So there was I left holding a water cannon of a cat as he emtied his very full bladder with t-shirt soaked in nto so pleasent smelling male cats pee, much to the onlookers amusment.

The kind words from The Real Farmer being "It's just as well he didn't do that 5 mins ago when he was lying on your head, it would have gone right in your ear and I would have wet myself too laughing....."

Pesto and Pasta

After the late start, the vegetable garden is finally in full swing. We are beginningto enjoy mixed salad leaves, spinach, raddish and the typical sudden excess of courgettes is looking imminent. The potatoes which had to wait until the middle of June to go outare also looking due to flower very soon.

Last nights dinner was something of a first. Home made pesto using home grown basil. At least, the basil started out life as one of those horribly overcrowded pots you get from the supermarket. My previous experiences being that you use them once and then they wither away. On this occasion, I had a little space to fill in the 1st terracethe veg garden so I took the basil out the pot, broke it up into about 6 clumps and shovedit in the soil. For the first few days the basil really didn't seem sure if it could cope with this new found freedom and hung on the edge between life and death. But now after some weeks it is growing at an amazing rate of knots.
I easily collected the "3 good handfulls" that Jamie suggested and left the plants lookingnone the thinner. A quick session with the pestle and mortar with the addition of roasted pine nuts and garlic, blend with Olive oil, parmesan cheese and a little lemon juice. Season to taste, and hey presto, pesto.....

I can thoroughly recommend it (both planting out shopped basil and the pesto).

Oslo, The magical mystery tour.

This weekend, on account of our visitor, it was neccesary for us to step into the real world and remind ourselves why our quiet and peaceful world is so much better. Where better to indulge in this opportunity to clarify the stark contrast of our rural life than on the streets of the capital itself.

It was a grey day all in all, the greyness being added to occasionally with a spot or two of rain and equally occasionally broken by the suns rays glinting through gaps in the cloud. This weather was pretty good for us as it reduced the dehydrating and jading effect of the night befores Thai banquet served with a suitable quantity of homebrew and washed down with an equally inapropriate quantity of Ardbeg.

After the hour long drive we arrived in the capital at about 11:30 a.m. Our purchase of 3 Oslo Cards for 195 Kr promised us access to most Museums and attractions and free transport on buses, trams, tube and trains inside Oslo. Always a worth while investment. Whilst most likely only a moderate financial saving the time and effort saved in not paying everywhere you go is worth the cost alone.

Our first stop was the reptile park. The name doesn't give any clues that this comprises of the 4th floor of the small building in one of the main streets. The lack of size and absence of parkland is a bit of a let down. However, the array of snakes, lizards, multicolour frogs (blue, lime green and orange...), spiders and even the odd alligator (who amazingly co-habits with two large terrapins and a large catfish and doesn't seem the least bit interested in eating them) are excellently presented and most interesting. Enough to please, not too much to overwhelm.

Next was a trip up Karl Johanns to the subtle and understated castle. A magnificent building but not quite on a par with the national monuments of the UKs royal family. The Thoughtful Scotmans was understandably apprehensive about getting his photo taken standing beside the guard on duty, so it was up to Myself and Mrs VL to brave it out beside some-one who looked barely out of school and was equipped with a machine gun.

The city hall was our next host, it's' dull brown 70's architectural statement on the outside gives no indications of the breath taking splendour of the main hall where the nobel peace prize is handed out, or of the Munch room with it's almost lifesize Munch painting "Life". The splendour and detail of the full room murals depicting Urban and Rural Norway would require days to take in every detail and the decor is a clear indication of the way that the wealth of oil has breathed new life into this once poor country.

After the city hall we took a short boat trip over to Bygdøy, to get a flavour of Norways ocean going history in the maritime museum, then on to the Viking ships, one of which is almost perfectly preserved after being buried with it's dead owner (to assist in the journey to the new life) by people very skilled in natural preservation techniques.

T'was a good day, with good company in a beautiful and cultured filled city, capped off by a quick swim in the fjord at the Viking-in-Laws chalet.

Blog News: Links Found in Sidebar...

Amazingly, I have managed to modify the blogs sidebar and add some links without mucking everything up.

So, to begin with we have.

News from beyond the north wind. A friend of ours from our previous life in Cumbria and some of his local associates. The man who suggested I should blog myself. This blog is well subscribed and heavily published with top quality content. Everything from book reviews, the wonders of the Cumbrian and Scottish mountains, local and global rants and much more. Sometimes serious sometimes hilarious, but always something for most to enjoy.

,

Petrol Art. On mans love and experiences of all things motor shared in photographed art for all those with a passion of the automotive world. See his (and our) experiences at motor events around the UK (and the world), with pictures of the sublime to the rediculious. An essential viewing for all pertolheads.

and

The Deep North. Been at the "small-holding" game longer than us, probably just as mad and nearly as far north......

The thoughtful Scotsman.....

Well, we've just finished cleaning the house from top to bottom. This can only mean one thing, we have a visitor due.

On this occassion it is the Thoughtful Scotman who will be with us. I am quite sure that this weekend will be the typical whirlwind of construction, sightseeing, fine food, Ardbeg Whiskey and so on. What will be missing from the visit, and this will be a first for our good friend, is the presence of a 7.5t lorry waiting to be filled with our worldly goods, a feat which Mr TS has helped with on 2 occasions in the last year.

As I write this I am completing another important part of the preperation for our visitor. I must say, a noble excercise and not one to be undertaken lightly. As you all had guessed, this task is to confim that the quality of the latest batch of home brew is up to scratch to save us from paying the extortionate cost of beer in the supermarkets. This latest batch is not my preferred Muntons Gold (which I have been unable to get hold off so far since the move from Bergen), this is Coopers brewery kit. This does not follow the all important "Reinheitsgebot" and requires the addition of common suger which is alien to the brewing process. Other than a hint of cloudiness it is acceptable however.

The itinery includes, completion of the pig house ready for their big move outdoors (see post below), a trip to an English pub (run by an Englishman) down the road, a trip to Oslo and much good food and company.

You can expect reports of cultural experiences and detailed descriptions of successes or failures with the planned menus. I will even attempt to get a guest report from Mr TS himself, but given his thoughtful shy nature this is unlikely. Maybe I just need to wait until after a few Ardbegs.......

Pork, Unprocessed and in bulk.

Yes, another milestone in our quest for true small-holder status.

I realise that some of you may find the title as a slightly unacceptable or inhumane way to describe our latest two additions but that is exactly what they are. More on that later.

Saturday was spent building a completely over-engineered "movable" electric fence in preparation for the new arrivals due on Sunday. Unfortunately the electric fence energizer I had ordered from Ireland had obviously suffered a little more than just superficial damage in transport and failed to operate. I rang the manufacturer this Monday morning and they were very apologetic and put a new one in the post straight away. So assuming that the new one arrives in good time and works I may get sing there praises.

So, in the absence of a functioning electric fence, Sunday morning was spent constructing a pen inside the barn. Built using pallets and planks of wood. It was nice to have all my pallets in one place, again thanks to my parents tidying efforts during their recent "holiday"!!!

So 5p.m. on Sunday we duly "collected", with a lot of help from someone who knew what there doing, our chosen 2 from the farm next door. These had been carefully selected during a previous visit. Mrs Viking chose a 28Kg boy (because it had a retained testicle and offered a veterinary challenge for her (pigs are not castrated in the UK so this was a new thing)), and I chose a 22Kg girl (because it was the first of the bunch to come to me). Both are now around 9 weeks old.

As it turns out. Having them inside for a short while has given time for observed recovery after the boy had the Op (+ch anag.), the opportunity to worm and vaccinate before infecting our clean virgin land with any parasites and the opportunity to get a little close contact before they move on to pastures green.

Anyhow, back to the title. Pigs intelligent, friendly and amusing nature makes it all the more important to follow Mr Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall advice in the bible according to Hugh. . Roughly that is that one must never have it to far in the back of your mind that this is meat in production and not a couple of pets. Sure they will be treated with the same respect and care, given the same amount of attention to there welfare and needs and looked after as any animal should be, but they are going to slaughter and will be processed to end up as what I hope will be many excellent culinary creations. Difficult as it is, that is how it is. So, no names and a conscious effort not to label them with personalities. It's going to be difficult this first time but it will happen.

To re-enforce this in my head I have during the past evenings been referring to my library of cook books (especially the one named above) and getting some ideas what I will be doing with the meat. Parma ham, dry cured bacon, black pudding (if I'm really feeling brave), all manner of sausages, ribs, chops, maybe a bit of smoked bacon, chorizo..........

Anyhow, more pig stories to come, with photos once they are outside no doubt.

The weather, oh, and of course the hay

As you will not have managed to miss, we were in the process of making hay last week.

As most of you will know you require dry weather to make hay, so I was keeping an eye on the weather forcast. Rain was due this past weekend, but a quick check on the internet on Wednesday showed that that prediction was brought forward to Friday or possibly Thursday.

This of course left a dilema, do we play on the safe side and get the hay in on Wednesday, and then be left with very "Fresh" hay to deal with inside, or do we risk leaving it till Thursday evening when the hay will have had an extra day to dry outside but we may risk it being ruined by rain.

We decided Wednesday was the evening and, as shown, duly loaded up the trailer and karted the hay inside. This left us with a trailer full of heavily compact, slightly damp hay and due to the early harvest no where to put it as the space allocated to it had not been tidied and prepared. Since then we have prepared the area for the hay (with pallets covering the floor to allow some air to circulate under) and bit by bit emptied the trailer trying to ensure that all the hay is fully dry before is buried. It would be terrible to find that next year, when we come to use the hay for one of our planned livestock projects it has gone mouldy and is unusable.

This whole experience has evoked some new feelings and learnings in me.

Firstly, on the hay. There was something special about what could be described as our first large harvest (all be it small by many standards). When I say large, I mean something that you need a large trailer to collect. Sure it is probably lower value, easier and less work than the wonderful harvests of potatoes, onions, chilli peppers, tomatoes and so on that we were obtaining from our kitchen garden during our last years in Cumbria, but there was something different about this. I guess that this was a part of farming. Here am I, a well qualified, well paid (well not bad anyway), responsible engineer and what gets my mind going.... Feeling like a farmer. Can someone explain that, I'm not sure I can.

Now, on the weather. How does it effect your life. Is it a pain because you get wet, or maybe, too hot in your office and so on. Hardly going to ruin your day, or your year. Here, it has been very dry and very hot for a good number of weeks, lovely weather, if your going to the beach. But when you speak to the people growing the crops, the people who feed us and make a living out of doing it, it's been too dry. The crops have grown weak due to the lack of water, and now this weekends, long overdue, heavy rain has been too much for some of these crops and entire fields are flattenned as though a steamroller has run riot. Now that would ruin your year. For me the weather has been an inconvinience, maybe set the veg garden back a bit, but for some it really does make the difference between sucess and failure, income or no payment for the years work.

Blog News: Hit counter revelation

Wow, that was really quite simple.

By the power of the internet this blog now comes complete with hit counter at the bottom of the page!!!!!

I'll be trying to link to other websites before you know it (yes, before you say it, it'll all go horrible wrong).

This Bird has Flown

At least that's what we hope.

The story of Splash, the injured seagull has come to an end.

On Wednesday morning after over four days of recouperation, Splash, who was had been left in his usual position standing on the lawn vanished. As there was no indication of struggle or attack and judging by his increased level of activity that morning we can only assume that he took himself off. An extensive search of the area was conducted and there was no sign.

So here's hoping and wishing Splash all the best out there in the world outside our Garden.....

Drying the hay

Phase 2 of Part 1 in the grand hay making plan is ongoing.....

This involves drawing the hay together in rows, as displayed in picture, in the evening to keep most of it above the dew. Spreading it out again in the morning (i.e. 6 a.m. to give me time to get to the bus) and turning it when we arrive home from work.

Al in all, a bit of a palava... One I thought was only for a couple of days but now we have it on good authourity, from a wiser, slightly older and very much more experienced hand that even in this warm weather it'll take a least 4-5 days to be fully dry and ready for storage. This means it'll be up early for the whole of this week before loading up the tractor trailer on Friday evening and depositing the finished hay in the barn before the rain that is forecast at the weekend.

If it was easy everybody would be doing it.............

The continuing Splash Saga

You will be pleased to here that Splash is still with us, although we thought we'd lost him at one point....... Having circled in an upwards direction for about 2 full revolutions during a test flight, splash began his decent. Unfortunately, due to some innacuracies in the flight computer, splash crashed into on of our large maple trees and "landed" in the middle of a large patch of wild Rasberries. Forunatly previous golf ball seeking experience was put into use and splash was duly found and recovered.....

At close of play last night, Splash was drinking, unaided and showed some improvements in awareness and even moved of his own accord (albeit a few inches.....).

As you are all, no doubt, on the each of your seats!!!!!, regular updates and significant events will be posted as they occur.

Thanks to Dad.......

For fixing the garage door.

Which has now had it's 2 coats of Norwegian Farm Red......

Cutting the Hay

Well, after a long days work, phase 1 of part 1 of the hay cutting is complete.

This will hopefully leave us with some nice hay and now the land which will become the Orchard is all ready for a couple of pigs to prepare the soil...

In the morning, like A real farmer.... I have to get up at some rediculous hour to spread the large piles I have left the hay in back out for another day of drying in the sun. The theory being that at night it should all be in piles so that the there is less grass exposed to the due and during the day it should be spread out to give the maximum surface area for drying in the sun.

Hopefully the weather should keep the way it is which will mean that the hay should be dry in a couple of days which means that I only have to go through the piling and spreading procedure a couple of times, apart from the other half of the hay area which I have not yet cut......

The Saga of Splash

Here's one for all you animal lovers out there (although I can't promise a happy ending).

Splash, the seagull (a small variety) arrived on Saturday afternoon after Mrs Viking had finished her morning surgery at the clinic. Splash had suffered some form of truama to his (his for convenience, sex unknown) head, and had been resident at the clinic since Thursday.

Yesterday splash spent his day swaying (you couldn't really call it standing) , sitting, bobbing (when placed in water) , controlling decent before crashing (when launched) and spitting out the food that he was fed. All in all it was not looking to good for splash so the decision was taken to PTS before we went to bed. However, Mrs Viking was called out at the last moment and as she did not return until the early hours, Splashes fate swung in the balence for another night.

This morning the cry went up "lets put that bird out of it's misery", but of course first it was neccesary to check for any improvment. So, splash was duly Launched into the skys..... To our surprise splash did not simply control his decent before crashing uncerimoniously into the ground, instead he flew upwards in a controlled circle between the house and the trees (before crashing uncerimoniously into a bush). Reprieve Number 2.........

Today (Sunday), Splash has spent his day standing (with a hint of sway), bobbing (with a hint of swim), drinking, swallowing (one entire king prawn and some cat food so far..), and keeping Peggy amused.

So assuming that splashes recovery continues it'll be off to Rema 1000 for a kilo or two of frozen prawns on the way home from work tommorow.

Welcome to Our Blog

Hello family, friends and all.

Welcome to our Blog, which will hopefully give those interested the ability to keep track of and comment on the goings on in Haugtuft (lit. Small farm on the hilltop) out here in southern Scandanavia. I don't know quite how all of this works yet, but those of you who wish to post (as well as comment) on this blog are welcome to do so...

However, I can't really waste too much time now as the sun is shining and it is not supposed to rain for the next few days, so I really must make Hay whilst the sun shines.

Not just making hay but also preparing the area for some planned new arrivals. Two 25Kg 10 week old pigs who are going to come and prepare the ground which next year will become the orchard.

I think that I can now officially be called a farmer as yesterday, due to a continuing saga with oil pressure in the Landrover, I drove to the shops in my Tractor.......

We hope to pubish some more detailed bloggings on the various projects which are ongoing and maybe, if I can get a handle on the latest blog technology, include some piccies for those with whom words are not enough!!!!!

Anyhow, got to go and make hay, put a second coat of paint on the newly repaired Middle bottom garage door (thanks Dad), feed splash (the resident sick seagull), take the front wings off the landy to work out which gaskets I need to change to keep oil in the engine, fix the timing and lights on the Opel, make a pig house and cook dinner.........

A (and M (who's out on a call at the mo...))