More news from Serbia

Got a run in this morning and running in the mountains is exhausting so I'll just post some pics and info and hit the sack.

We took a walk through through the hills this morning before our tour - it's just gorgeous here. Felt like I should be singing something from a Julie Andrews movie.
Here is our hotel - very European - small rooms but the view is great - we are in the "tower"
Kids and I looking down on the town
Just what I needed - another couple miles up and down at altitude. Actually, since the entire Serbian diet seems to consist of butter, meat and cheese, I probably need this more than I know. Poor John is absolutely dying for a salad - he ordered a ceasar salad at dinner and got a couple lettuce leaves drowned in a buttery sauce with chicken, bacon and cheese. The food here really is wonderful and you would be hard-pressed to find an overweight Serbian which lends a lot of support to this type of whole food, unprocessed diet being far superior to our refined, fried psudo-food American diet. There are no hydrogenated corn syrups, trans-fats, GMO foods (which they label) or unnatural ingredients at all.
We took a wonderful tour of this cave (amazing) and then saw an ethnic village with authentic old Serbian buildings.
When they told me this was an old coffee bean roaster, I was so desperate for some good coffee, I thought I'd give it a go. No luck.


We go into the town center at least twice a day - there is a large man-made pond and many shops and street vendors. I have accidently tried to pay several street vendors in Euros instead of Dinars and each time they have refused to take the money saying "Ne, Ne" - this is amazing because one Euro is worth 100 Dinar and I'm trying to give them a fortune which they turn down - incredibly honest people! Of course John has taken away all my Euros in exasperation since I can't seem to tell the difference between all this monopoly money. The food, drinks and everything here is so cheap - our most expensive meal with appetizers, huge meals, two beers, two wines, two hot chocolates was less than $40. Ian bought this wonderful hand-knit wool vest for $7 and John buys huge bottles of water for about $.60. We would retire here if we could understand anything they are saying.

Falling asleep - more tomorrow - another tour to someplace.

We arrive in Serbia

OK - my last post was a draft that I couldn't post until now because the pics wouldn't upload so just pretend I posted it last Thursday.

NOW... We are in the beautiful country of Serbia. The plane ride was sooooooo.... LONG! Took off from San Anonio at 1:00pm and got into Rome at 9:30am the next day.

We were in the Rome airport for 7 hours before our plane took off for Belgrade - we landed in a tornado (just barely) and everyone on the plane was clapping (and/or crying) because we didn't die. Then a taxi to the bus station, a 4 1/2 hour bus trip and we finally made it to Zlatibor at 1:00am!!! Happy to report that despite our fears, there were no chickens or livestock on the bus - it was actually very comfortable.

We are now in the process of adjusting to being in a VERY foreign country. The receptionist lady said we were the third Americans to ever stay at their hotel. Yikes! While I was at the bus station, I had to pay 30 dinar to use the restroom (aka toilet) this was a unique experience for sure.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Happy to say that the facilites at the resort are much more in line with what we are used to. So after traveling for two days straight, we tried to get something to eat.
Geeee.... so many options, who can choose? Needless to say, language has been a huge barrier. We have our little phrase translator and some of the people speak a little English but we ended up eating pizza for two days because it was the only thing we were sure was edible. Of course they serve it with ketchup on it and we don't know how to ask for it without. Yum.We had breakfast in the Zlatibor town square yesterday and ordered off the menu - I ended up with a butter and lamb fat sandwich - it was actually pretty good. Now the coffee on the other hand... you can literally stand a spoon up in it. I'd kill for a good cup of american coffee by now.

Aside from the language and food issues, the weather has been great - maybe a bit cold but this Texas girl aint complaning! When I left, it was 100 degrees and now I'm strolling around in 60 degrees of coolness! Loving it! Kids are having a good time - Ian can't understand why everyone doesn't just speak English like normal people and Ella wants to nap all day!


Tomorrow we are going on some sort of tour - couldn't understand when they told us what it was - we just told the front desk we wanted to see something. Let you know how that goes.

Hoophouse Take 2

I finally wrestled the laptop away from John long enough to post a blog!

A quick post before we leave for Europe for three weeks! Never fear, we have a great guy staying here at the farm taking care of the animals - praise God!!!

Hoophouse part two:
So the first "hoophouse" actually turned into an A frame due to some strange geometry factors that we apparently were unaware of - so some modifications were made and the result is below:





Here is John pulling it into place and it works great!!! Way to go!!! We put the turkeys out in the portable electric fence around it but they were too small and slipped right out. Ahhh well, I guess we'll have to wait a couple more weeks or try again when we get back from Europe.

We meant to do that.

After the "snake incident", the hens stopped laying eggs so I was forced to go to the grocery store and buy the $3 per dozen brown cage-free eggs in the recycled carton - this morning I realized I had one store bought egg left and happily my hens had begun laying again last week so I cracked them all into the griddle - hmmmm....can you pick out the expensive store bought egg?

So... the turkeys are going out onto pasture this week. Which means we have to build a hoop house for shade and roosting at night. We have to build this with five days left before we take off for Europe and are gone for three weeks. Yikes!
We download plans, buy all the materials and Rob comes over to help us put this thing together (Good Lord, what would we do without the VanVleets? No wonder we had to move closer to them)

So... the plans are horrible. John and Rob make constant trips back to the store for more/different supplies, it's 100 degrees outside and we have to set up an old 10x10 shade canopy so the boys don't pass out. They get to the final framing stage where the hoops are put into place and all the hoops begin to buckle. Needless to say, our first attempt at a hoop house actually turned into an A frame - we're gonna patent it.


Whatever, it works. We threw a tarp on it and voila - portable shade any turkey would love. John is thinking....where did we go wrong????


Rob came back this morning for round two (bless that man) and some modifications in the plans were made. Stay tuned. This gets good.

Footloose

Do you remember the movie Footloose with Kevin Bacon? Well....last night at the Taylor Rodeo, I realized ... that's my life! I had my cowboy boots, jeans and cowboy hat on sitting watching the bull riders surrounded by everyone else in Taylor - I felt like a total imposter! Who is this person? Me... a farmer....in a small town???? Weird.

The kids enjoyed running around - it's nothing like the San Antonio Rodeo - everyone knows everyone else and the kids just run wild around the place. Midway through they invited all the kids to climb over the fence and come see if they could grab a flag off the tail of a steer. Winner got a new pair of boots. I'm not making this up.

Naturally both my kids got in on it but that little steer was fast and didn't want a bunch of kids chasing him. A group of kids got one of the steers but the other stayed out of reach. Here's the kicker - they both had horns - like, sharp ones - I was pretty sure at least one kid was gonna get gored but everyone made it out in one piece.

Then they had all the adults that wanted to, come out and wrestle, saddle and ride one of three larger steers with bigger, sharper, horns. Are there no lawyers in Taylor? Has no one here heard of liability??? I love it!!! AND at the end of the prayer to start the rodeo, they said "in JESUS name we pray".

I think I'm gonna like small town life.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Well, the rain finally let up tonight when our friends Rob and Jo VanVleet came over for dinner so Jo was able to feed and brush Bessie. We've been giving her some oats and corn with a vitamin to bring her in and also up her nutrition while she's pregnant and still growing herself. She loves it and will stand still and let anyone brush all over her.

Now Jo gives her some Alfalfa cubes. I brushed her this morning and I'm pretty sure she must be one of the most spoiled cows in Texas - she gets a full body brushing twice a day and all the fresh green hay she can eat. Nice.

Some other things that have happened since my last post - I heard coyotes yipping at 2:30am the other night and was woken out of a dead sleep. I grabbed the flashlight and saw four sets of eyeshine slinking through the trees down by the creek. I woke John up and he grabbed his gun but they had moved on by the time we got back down there - we'll need to keep Bessie's calf in the corral at night after he's born.

We put in an herb garden in a bed behind the house and hung some tomato plants from the eaves. No idea when I'll get time to get the main garden in but I'd like to plant some winter wheat now that I have a grain mill. Jo brought her freshly made bread last night and it is simply the most fantastic fresh tasting bread we've ever eaten.

We let the guineas out to roam the penned in area but...they can fly. They all quickly dispersed and only two have been coming back each night wanting to be let back in to the brooder house. So now we are down to two guineas - hopefully the others are down at the creek or out in the field eating bugs.

I titled this post because as I was walking out to the brooder house in the rain and fed Bessie in the rain and let the hens out in the rain.... how could I possibly complain about the rain? We had a drought for 4 years but as soon as we buy a farm it rains for three weeks straight - in the middle of summer - in Texas. Our tanks are full, we'll get more hay than we can use and everything is green and lush and cool. Maybe just a little sun would be nice... but I'd better be careful what I wish for.

Turkeys are here!

This is Maurice - is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen? These kittens have been our constant friends and love bugs - they are right at my heels no matter how early in the morning it is and even follow me around in the rain. Which speaking of, is why I didn't post for the last couple of days. It has been storming nonstop here and we have been busy every minute getting the brooder house protected from the drafts and building a cover for Bessie (our very original jersy cow name).

Anyway, the turkeys and laying hens came in today! 25 Barred Rock laying chicks and 100 turkey chicks (60 Bourbon Reds and 40 Bronze) All the turkeys went into one brooder house and the laying hens went in with the Guineas.

I was worried the Guineas would bother the little one day old Barred Rocks but the spunky little things immediately started chasing the larger birds around. Ian and Ella both had friends over today and we are going to the Fourth of July Parade in Taylor tomorrow.

Much Love and Happy Independence Day!