AND THEN THERE WAS ONE...

Today has been extremely hot.  37 degrees C in the shade and about 40+ in the sun.  The dogs have managed to survive it, just about, the cats did what they do best and slept all day but I am sad that one of my hens didn't cope!  We now only have one hen, so I need to get some more quickly.  I am certain it was the heat that killed her and nothing else.  The other girl was ok, although panting a little.  I am going to have to keep a close eye on her tomorrow as it will be another scorcher!  I have decided that I might plant a tree in the coop, so that next year they have extra shade!  I am going to spend a bit of time tonight researching 'things to do for hot hens'!

The only girl left! I am sure she will be lonely till we pick up some more!

I have given the plants an extra watering tonight also.  Even though I was told by a local farmer only to do it every other day, but all the plants looked very dry and thirsty.

The corn is coming along, and in the afternoons now gives some extra shade in the coop for our remaining hen.  

THE CORN  - AS HIGH AS THE CHICKEN COOP NOW!

Well, that's it for now really.  We have a busy week coming up as we have guests arriving, but I expect I will put them to work in the vegetable plot at some point.  At least our pool is functioning well this year!

Keep cool and carry on..

HEAT, HUMIDITY AND GROWING VEGGIES

Well, a brief catch up.  The last few days have been very warm indeed.  It reached 35 degrees C here at our finca today, and with the high humidity it is a little stifling to say the least!  Numerous cool showers were the order of the day, after I spent most of yesterday feeling ill and overwhelmed from the heat - I forgot to drink enough and with cleaning someone else's finca for them I became overheated! easily done - I suppose.

So, the animals seem to be doing well, the dogs are keeping cool by lying under the orange trees in the dusty earth or in the cooler earth, where the sprinklers from next doors fields have left cool, damp ground.

The hens (what's left of them) are keeping cool under the hen house. I have been sprinkling cool water on the earth for them to bath in.  I am thinking of getting them a mini pool and putting a little water in for them, just to see what they do!  I don't think hens can swim, so it needs to be shallow!  I will get back to you all on how we do with that one!  The feathers are finally beginning to grow back on one of the girls, her back was virtually bare after the cockerel had been at her, but now she is beginning to recover.  The girls are also laying really well, I believe it must have been 'him' that was eating the eggs occasionally!

The cats, all lie about sleepily for most of the day, somewhere shady.  In the bamboo, under trees, amongst a pile of leaves etc.  All the kittens seem to be doing well.

Tomatoes are growing nicely, although they are exhibiting strange markings.  It is either a tomato illness or under/over watering.  I have to research that tomorrow.

All the other vegetables seem to be doing quite well, since we've been watering correctly!  I can't wait to get some new plants in, so I can really see things grow at their proper rate, instead of being water starved!

More updates to come.  Stay tuned. Over 'n' out from a very hot Sa Pobla.

CATCH UP!

It's been months since the last post.  This is mainly due to 'LIFE' and not having any time to sit down and blog.  I hope I haven't lost you all!  

Anyway, where to begin? I have no idea, so I will start with things that have happened and it will be in no particular order.

The Corsican (our cockerel) is no longer with us.  It came to a point where I felt too scared to go into the coop, so a friend from Buger (next village along) helped me dispatch him.  He was a beautiful fellow to look at (the cockerel, not my friend) but not nice and it meant J could not go into the coop to collect eggs etc.

The Corsican and his two dames

So, sadly we also a hen down.  C found her dead in the corner of the coop one morning in June.  I had found her struggling and lethargic on day and it turned out that she had a 'jelly egg' that was stuck in her bottom, so I had to remove it.  I guess she became egg-bound and died from not being able to push the eggs out - quite a common thing in hens apparently.  She was a good looking girl and one of the bravest hens, so I was sad about that.

We have had kittens galore!  After Jess had her four, Pipla a pretty white puss-cat had her first babies.  She only had two thankfully.  All are thriving well and living outside again.  They were living in a box in my room but I had terrible allergies so they had to go out.

Over the last couple of weeks, a local farmer we know came round to take a look at how our veggies were coming along.  He threw his hands in the air and said something in Mallorquin, claiming, no wonder our plants were dying and not thriving, we were watering them completely wrongly!

Oh!

He then whizzed off and came back with a special triangular tool (have no idea what they are called) and began digging trenches beside all the peppers, sweetcorn, tomatoes etc etc.  He dug up all the cauliflowers and cabbages as they were no good.  He said another couple of days and we would have lost the lot!

So now we are watering differently and the growth in just the last week and a bit is amazing.  Now we know for next time!!  Also irrigating the crops this way means you only need to water every two days (unless its really hot and dry).

Irrigation troughs

Irrigating tomatoes (the plants on the right have gone - they were no good)

Maize, it has grown at least another foot or more since last week! incredible plant

Irrigating the peppers, they are coming along better now, they were suffering a bit in this photo.

Samuel Sprat, the black cat, watching the water trickle away.

I am now very excited at the prospect of growing better vegetables in the future.  Everything is looking so much better for the moment.

So cat news..apart from kittens all over the place, Samuel Sprat (as seen in the photo above) is one of my favourite cats.  He always wants lots of love and affection, cuddles and back strokes, a bit tricky when you are trying to garden and not tread on him under your feet!  Anyway, he has been ousted from the back garden area.  All the cats seem to be living in the back garden most of the time, Adolf has ousted Samuel but still seems to be ok with him being in the territory.  So, Samuel is living in the vegetable plot, and sneaks round to get food and water when he can! Also, Old Abuela (grandma cat) is in hiding from Adolf.  For some reason they don't get along and he keeps trying to get her to move on, although she did win a fight the other day. Perhaps its a cats way of moving rivals and oldies out of the pack to make way for the younger generations! Who knows, I'm not an expert, but the balance of power is ever changing.

Our pool is slowly up and running.  It's almost ready.  It had a leak and so we had to work out 'where?'.  Once found our landlord came and patched it up.  He has also fixed the filter, so I am hoping we will have a lovely pool to plunge into for the rest of this summer.  

Much more to write about but that is it for today.  Need to get on with errands.

Enjoy!