Welcome to Techno-Billies

We have four hens in full production and for just two of us, that's a lot of eggs!  In the UK I had nine hens - mostly ex battery so we didn''t get 9 eggs a day but quite often we got five or six.  They soon mount up, so what do you do with all those eggs?



In the UK I still had grown up children living at home so cakes and biscuits and puddings were a daily affair.  Here, it is just hubby and I and although we could easily down a syrup sponge pudding and custard on a daily basis I don't think it would be good for the waistline.


So... recipes that use loads of eggs.  If you google just that you get quite a few good sites but it is just as easy to scan your own cookery book at home and you will almost definitely come up with a souffle among other eggy treats.  The first time I made a souffle it was simply to disprove (or otherwise) the hype about how hard it was to make one.  How if you accidentaly knocked the oven door it would collapse and the instant you brought it ou…

Unfortunately our volunteers have let us down very much at the last minute leaving us a bit short handed at a very busy time.  So....

WANTED:  One or two capable 'outdoorsy' type people willing to work for four or five hours a day (weekends free) for a minimum of two weeks between now and Christmas.  The jobs needing doing are...

1.  Moving this large hen house from here.......





To here.....  well at the bottom of this road is the water meadow...just out of sight through the gate at the bottom... yeah it's a long way.



It is going to be modified to house our geese which are arriving in December.

2.  The olive harvest.....


We have around 150 trees but not all of these are producing.  No experience is required, it is simply a case of putting down nets, bashing the tree branches with sticks and then gathering the olives into buckets.



3.  Wood chopping & Stacking for winter.

4.  Stream clearing....  (sheer brute strength with spade I'm afraid) although this job is a nece…

Each season here in Extremadura has brought surprises and delights anew.  Of course we were warned that summer would be unbearably hot.  Bring it on we thought.  Now of course we know better.  Summer here is everyone's least favourite time of year.  For about 6 weeks you are confined to a vampire-like lifestyle unable to go out of the house during the day and then mercilessly eaten by mosquitoes and midgies during the night - which is only marginally cooler than the day time.




The summer broke in early October with an amazing thunderstorm.  We were still staying in the yurt at the time and even the dog came under the bedclothes with me!  Three days of steady rain followed and we were able to see the way the terrain on the finca channels the water downwards and away, or not, as the case may be.  We had started clearing the stream but not finished and now we understand why our water meadow is a water meadow.  Another stream needs digging, perhaps was dug once upon a time but has been…

Apologies for the delay in updating you all as to the progress on the house.  Things here took a very busy turn.


Our deadline for finishing the house renovations was the impending arrival of my 90 year old father for a holiday.  This date was fixed, the flight booked and everything arranged.  The builders knew of this months before work began on the house.  You already know that we spent a lot longer than predicted living in the yurt and camping kitchen.  It turned out to be just over 6 weeks.  The last couple of which were beginning to get cold and damp.

The house door and window glass was fitted just three days before my father's arrival.

The stair treads were not ready so the old metal ones were hastily soldered back on to give us a temporary stairway.  It is a bit precarious at the top and very far from ideal but there was little else we could do.


The new kitchen was not ready so we hobbled together what we could of the old cabinets and some temporary work tops.



 The walls ar…