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Saturday, December 26

All things Christmas:- Turkey Chickens Ducks and Goats........................................

The run up to Christmas 2015 has been very busy here on the Finca.  This past month has seen us helping friends collect olives,  preparing for Christmas and also sorting out paperwork for my social security payments,  which  will now give us state health cover while we are living here in Spain.

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Christmas is a difficult time for anyone when your family is far away, be they in another town or another country.  This year I found it harder, since our grandson who was born earlier this year would be celebrating his first Christmas.  However it is important to get things into perspective, there are many people in the world with far worse issues than being away from family at Christmas, you only have to watch the TV and see the appalling pictures of families fleeing war zones, people living in areas suffering from natural disasters to realise that it is more important to be grateful for the life you have and that all your loved ones wherever they are, are healthy, safe and happy............Christmas really is only ONE day in the year, its about the birth of Christ, it is not about how we see and treat each other on one individual day in a year, it is  about how we treat each other for the other 364 days that is what  really counts    I will be returning to the UK next week for 10 days and will have my December 25th with my family early in January but my thoughts are with them the whole 365 days of the year.

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The olive harvest here is almost finished, Blane spent at least 7 seven days helping Miguel collect his, and we both went over and bashed 7 trees to help some other friends.

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Getting our Social Security sorted was not really difficult, but was a drawn out affair, it took 4 trips to Caceres ( the main city here in the Province of Caceres).  Eventually the nice man stamped the paperwork and now we are covered by state health care here in Spain.

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Christmas day 2015 has seen additions to the Finca family.


 Christmas day was a busy day, but the weather was stunning, the sunshine was warm and so in the morning, once the dinner was prepped and in the oven, I took 10 minutes out  with a glass of bucks Fizz on the terrace.  Delicious.................



Sunshine Bucks Fizz


We had friends for Christmas dinner and they were keen to have a  traditional English Christmas dinner, which went down surprisingly well, although the bread sauce took a little persuasion to taste!  But the Baileys chocolate cheesecake took no persuasion and disappeared in a flash. 

Once of the easiest no cook cheesecakes I have made, it was lovely........... 


Cheesecake recipe  


Having eaten the usual obscene amount of Christmas food, I decided to walk off  lunch  with Abuelo (Granddad)  as he wanted to see the Goats.  All three Goats were happily munching on hay in the delightful Christmas day sunshine  and all was fine and peaceful just as it should be at this time of year. The chickens and the ducks all enjoyed scratching around the finca, it was like a warm spring day, nothing like a cold traditional Christmas card scene at all

Meg enjoying Christmas day sleeping in the sunshine












Two hours later, after our friends had left and Darkness was setting in, it was time to go down to the enclosure and lock up the chickens and ensure the goats were stocked up with Hay and water.  
Torch in hand off I trotted, I could hear bleating, which is not that unusual, but this bleat was high pitched. Sweeping the torch light around, there was Georgia and beside her was a little tiny black shape, shaking and wet. Of course I was in my best Sunday dress, so I had to race back to the house, grab a towel, shove on an old rag, raced back down, dried off the kid and took both mum and baby into the goat house, checked them both over, and all seemed well. Baby bleated  mum looked bewildered and I was in a daze.  Animals are amazing, I was worried before hand, as I had read terrible stories and had lists yards long as to what to and what not to do, at the end of the day she coped on her own.  Big thanks to a Facebook friend, Experience Olvera who was on the end of the phone, telling me what I should look out for.









Today, Boxing day, mother and baby doing very well, baby is suckling well and I have established that IT is a HE so we have a buckling.  He will be castrated by the age of 10 weeks, that way we can keep him, goats can breed from a very young age and I do not want any more goats than we potentially will have by the end of January.

The other two goats are Martha and Billy,  I am pretty certain Billy is pregnant and I think, a very novice think, is possibly going to give birth in the next week. Martha I am still not sure about, she is a wait and see,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

This is Billy..............Thinking she is due very soon


PS the heading says, All things Turkey, Chickens Ducks and Goats...........The Turkey... well he was in the oven




2 comments:

  1. What an adorable babe he is! Does he have a name yet, if not can I propose "Truffle"? Guess what we've been eating! Yup, Thorntons chocolate truffles and he is just the same colour.

    Happy New Year to you both - or should that be to all of you!

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  2. Ha Ha very good Vicky.........His name is Gaspar after one of the three Kings

    Happy New Year to you and John

    ReplyDelete