Cat tails Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 Well meet Punaise (Dutch for thumbtack), the angry coughing hedgehog currently waiting in a cat carrier to be taken to the shelter! He/she woke me up this morning again with all the coughing and rattling, so caught it and it’s now complaining in the shed. What if this is just the first hoggy again, that has been returned after treatment? Then she’s just an attention seeker! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 Punaise is back. Big fat lady, so possibly preggers and they don’t want to keep those. Will just have to sleep through the coughing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 I think you did the right thing taking her to check though Cattails. Fingers crossed for a healthy hog and hoglets 🤞🏻 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Geoid Posted October 10, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 10, 2022 My mum noticed this kitten out on the streets. We spoke to the owner of the mother cat, who said we can keep the kitten. Meet Shadow: 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 😍😍 What a little fluff ball! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Shadow looks a lovely, little cutie x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted October 20, 2022 Share Posted October 20, 2022 Always neatly stack your cats to save space! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 That's a wonderful photo! It would never happen at my house, unfortunately! Geoid - Somehow I missed Shadow. She/he is absolutely gorgeous, well done on the rescue! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 That’s a great photo CT. I think Red might be asking for help though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 On 10/21/2022 at 9:57 PM, mullethunter said: That’s a great photo CT. I think Red might be asking for help though! You are very right. Flo is very … intense … 😅 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 Apparently I have a very strange chicken… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted November 7, 2022 Share Posted November 7, 2022 😍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted December 6, 2022 Share Posted December 6, 2022 Major review of immigration policy is taking place in France today. Quite how it will affect me I don't yet know? The main points appear to be that asylum seekers have no right of appeal and get an order to leave the Country immediately if they are not accepted, applications for residency will now require a written/ verbal examination, but will this apply to renewals? They have said if applicants have a work contract there will be no problem, but will people from outside the EU still be able to buy a house and live here, having passed the means test and being able to afford the medical expenses? 66% of French think there are too many foreigners in the Country and the official figure is now 7.7% of the population, which is the highest percentage ever and is still rising. Think the legislation goes to the vote at 5.00pm, so things should be clearer tomorrow. One thing is certain; my French is terrible and is unlikely to improve much without some intensive tutoring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted December 8, 2022 Share Posted December 8, 2022 What happened in the end yesterday Beantree, do you know? I think France is perhaps starting to go down the same path as the UK, with those in Govt feeling the need/wanting to, take action on immigration. Here you need to take a language test for permanent residency, but there are plenty of courses which teach to the standard. I guess if you leave enough time for a failure/retake you can protect yourself a bit if it becomes necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted December 9, 2022 Share Posted December 9, 2022 I'm not quite sure what happened @Daphne, because there is no mention of it on the news this morning. It was mentioned late yesterday that there was, as usual, a big difference of opinion between the parties. One aspect suggested was that re-uniting family groups should no longer be an acceptable reason for immigration. Think everyone agreed a need for change but the First Minister said 'no immigration at all' was not possible. We have a 'hung parliament' here, so the governing party hasn't an absolute majority. The only way new policies get through is to invoke clause 49.3 of the constitution, which allows them to force it through. It has been used eight times already! They have now moved on to 'end of life rights' and are still debating retirement age changes and getting nowhere, despite Macron wanting it resolved by the end of January 2023. We have another 4 years of this, because the Country voted Macron as President but then didn't vote him enough seats in the Assembly to do anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 Worth mentioning is one thing they have agreed on. All large exterior car parks must be covered with solar panels, which I think is a great idea, if only so your car doesn't overheat in Summer and you don't get wet walking to the shops. What isn't mentioned is how big these car parks are, who pays and how long to they have to construct them? In the meantime we now have 3 more nuclear stations running and the Country has reduced its electricity consumption by the required 10%, so power cuts are unlikely. We have 40 of the 56 stations running and the others are having corrosion issues addressed; that work they said takes between 5 and 6 years to complete. 'End of life' rights are being debated by a selected team of 175 people who will present their conclusions in March 2023. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Rather amazingly, Portugal voted very recently to allow end of life legally, although I don't know the details of when it is allowable or when it will become law. I had assumed that being a still quite/very Catholic country this would not be popular. I have been in the UK all week - really quite parky isn't it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 I know people have very strongly held views on this and won’t all agree with me but I wish the UK would follow Portugal on that. Yes it has been a little chilly - even down here on the sticky out bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 Quite warm and sunny here now so the front door was left open for a while. Our terrier jumped out of her bed and started barking in the front garden. I went out expecting to see a cat up a tree but actually saw her face to face with a wild boar. Not a particularly large one but still pretty dangerous. Put the electric fence on around the chicken enclosure as a precaution, but whilst I was doing that the boar wandered over to the boundary fence and then just disappeared? It's all open fields down there, but no sign of it at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted December 24, 2022 Share Posted December 24, 2022 I wouldn't like to say, but just keep yourself, your dog and everybody else under a bit more surveillance than usual. When I was in Normandy in November we came face to face with hunters one Sunday morning, I don't know if you have any around you but that might be the boar's ultimate fate. I hear/read that their numbers are increasing virtually everywhere, including around us. I am more wary than I used to be walking in the forest here as I will never forget my first translation exercise when we lived in France about 30 years ago - a newspaper story about a boar chasing a man up a tree where he had to spend most of the night! We went to a local concert last night which was short (hard pews in church!) but with beautiful singing. On the way home we saw a hare - they are pretty rare around here but such a lovely thing to see. Happy Christmas Beantree if you are celebrating in the French manner tonight (and everyone else!) We watched the locals constructing the giant bonfire which will be lit at midnight to keep the baby Jesus warm. It consists of massive tree trunks, just like last year, when it dismally failed to light properly, I foresee the same thing happening again. However, an old lady lives next to the fire site (its right in the middle of the hamlet) and I don't suppose she is enthralled, the pile of wood is about 3m high and 2m wide, just imagine the smoke if not the flames! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 We dropped a bag of ' English style goodies' at our neighbours house (no-one in) and he came round later with a bag of 'French style goodies'. Whilst here he mentioned that they had a wild bore in the garden earlier, so it must have crossed the stream in the valley and gone up the other side. He called the local hunt, who came round immediately and shot it going towards someone else's garden. So that's a potential problem resolved until the next one turns up @Daphne. I saw a video of a charging boar and it was the same size as the one we had visit. No bonfires around here fortunately, but we do have hares and no rabbits, presumably because the ground gets too hard to dig. We were plagued by rabbits in the UK and lost a lot of veg to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 Had an email on Thursday from a friend telling me that he would be over Friday with half a Sanglier (Wild Boar)- €45. It's pretty big, perhaps 15Kg (been skinned and gutted) and the job for this afternoon is to butcher it following the instructions in a video he gave me the link to. The price is based on the original weight, so around 90Kg. He assures me it doesn't taste 'gamey' ,so a strong flavour, it's more like pork, but the meat is much darker. So this is a first attempt, having only done chickens before, is a bit of a challenge.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Tell us how it went Beantree, I think €45 sounds pretty reasonable given how much boar meat products sell for (not that we ever see any). I think that's a pretty good description of the flavour, I find it quite mild but richer than pork, I find venison much stronger for example. I like it best slow cooked in a casserole of some sort, although if you can get some of it minced with the fat you can freeze it and make up patties, burgers etc later. I hope it went well for you, and that you had use of some good knives/saws etc! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursula123 Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Beantree, I’m sure I read somewhere that you have to freeze wild boar for a time due to worms, I’ll see if I can find the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 It must be cooked properly @Ursula123, so no rare steaks. Didn't know about the freezing though, if that's right? We had rib steaks with the fillet attached last night @Daphne; tastes lovely, just a stronger pork flavour but still mild. What a time consuming process the butchering is. Watched a piece of the video a few times, did that bit and then watched some more. It's all vac packed (Lidl machine), labeled and in the freezer. Only thing I would do differently is save the half fillet from the rib section and freeze it with the rest from the front leg section. So, excluding watching the video, about 6 hours and I've still to tidy up. Used a large cool box with ice packs in to keep it all cool during processing and the butcher's table was made from a B&D workmate with a bread board clamped to it. Not sure I'd do it again, but perhaps in a spell of bad weather? Season has finished, so no more until 2024. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
